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LESSONS ABOUT SALVATION; 



PROM THE 



fife xiOr »rta at t\t Storfc !«««• 



BEING A SECOND SERIES 



or 



PLANTATION SERMONS 






BY THE 



Rev. A. F. DICKSON, 

5 i 

ORANGEBURG, S. C. 



Nil . 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

No. 821 Chestnut Street. 



dLo 3 



3>*T ,; 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

JAMES DUNLAP, Tbeas. 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED BY WILLIAM W. HARDING, PHILADELPHIA. 



The Library 
of Congress 

washington 



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CONTENTS 



PAGE 
PREFACE 5 

SERMON I. 

GOOD NEWS « 15 

SERMON II. 

JOHN THE BAPTIST 31 

SERMON III. 

TEMPTATION 47 

SERMON IV. 

SOME OP JESUS* MIGHTY WORKS 63 

SERMON V. 

SOME OP JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS % 77 

SERMON VI. 

MORE OF JESUS* MIGHTY WORKS 93 

SERMON VII. 

WISE WORDS Ill 

(3) 



4 CONTENTS. 

SERMON VIII. 

PAGE 
WISE WORDS 127 

SERMON IX. 

PARABLES — THE SOWER 143 

SERMON X. 

PARABLES — THE PRODIGAL SON 159 

SERMON XI. 

CHRISES FRIENDS AND ENEMIES 175 

SERMON XII. 

LAST DAYS 193 

SERMON XIII. 

LAST DAYS 211 

SERMON XIV. 

TRIAL AND DEATH 229 

SERMON XV. 

HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN 245 



PREFACE. 



In sending forth from the press a second volume of 
Plantation Sermons, I cannot refrain from an expression 
of gratitude to God for the great, and, to me, utterly un- 
expected favour, with which the first has been received ; 
not merely because success is itself a very pleasant thing, 
but also because this particular work so greatly needed 
to be done. 

The Reformation now in progress throughout the South 
— which, after all, is a development and not a revolution — 
and in whose aid these books are written ; viz., that re- 
form which employs the time and powers of some white 
member of the family on the Sabbath in instructing 
the servants in holy things — uniting in their de- 
votions, and holding up our common Lord and Saviour 
to their faith, is one of the very happiest, most hopeful, 
and most blessed of the signs of the times. 

By far the most impressive and valuable defence of 
Southern Christianity from the imputation of the unchari- 
table is to be found in the vast work of christianization 
going on among the coloured people : a work begun 
by the conscience and zeal of our fathers, bat now widen- 
ing with unexampled rapidity and success ; a work not 
1 * ( 5 < 



6 PREFACE. 

surpassed in its fruit by the labours of all of the foreign 
missionaries of the Christian world. Nearly all our 
churches address some portion of the Sabbath services 
specifically to the coloured people ; all make special 
provision for their accommodation. But more en- 
couraging still is the fact already alluded to — the vast 
number of masters and mistresses who gather their 
servants together, read to them, catechize them, and 
preside over and assist their worship. 

The obligation incurred by the white man thus to 
help his servants toward Christ and heaven, need not be 
enlarged upon here. Abler pens than mine have treated 
largely of these duties. Presbyteries are yearly sending 
down pastoral letters to the churches, urging the work 
upon them, and pastors are more boldly and practically 
pressing it from the pulpit and by the wayside. Let 
me rather avail myself of this prefatory page to offer a 
few hints to those who seek to be faithful in this matter. 

And first : Choose as convenient a time, and as com- 
fortable a place, for their assembling as you can. I 
mean, of course, convenient and comfortable for them. 
They are sensitive to cold, to constrained attitudes, and 
to distracting influences of every kind ; on the other 
hand, the subjects to be dwelt upon are more or less 
abstract, and therefore arduous to their awkward minds ; 
and your language, simple and familiar as it seems to 
you, is yet somewhat removed from their colloquial 
dialect, and so far forth foreign to them. Then you 
need to make the whole business as inviting to them as 
possible. A sullen, discontented listener is already lost 
to any hope of benefit. 

Give as much dignity to the occasion, as respects ex- 



PREFACE. T 

ternals, as you can conveniently. If possible, have a 
building especially appropriated to worship, unless there 
is some hall in your own dwelling that will answer the 
purpose. Even then, the other plan would be the best, 
because it would furnish them a good place for their own 
meetings, as well as their meeting with you. Insist, 
kindly and pleasantly, but strongly, on clean dress and 
cleanly persons. They are even more impressionable than 
impressible — to borrow a happy distinction ) and the 
bright Sunday handkerchiefs, and clean white aprons, 
and shining faces, while they will stir your kindliest 
feelings, will react powerfully upon them. They will 
feel that they are " in church," and will put on their 
best behaviour, and their most reverent attention, accord- 
ingly. 

It is of cardinal importance that what you do be 
brightly and cordially, as well as faithfully done. Let 
them see how pleasant a thing it is to you to teach and 
comfort and strengthen them. A warm heart and a 
sunshiny face are cordials to any of us ; but to none else 
so much as to them. Enter the room with a brisk step, 
and a cheerful smile, and a ready response to those who 
salute you ; and their hearts will be won at the outset. 

Do not be afraid to entrust them with parts of the 
service. As for the singing, the white man must have 
rare tact and homely skill and power who can lead them 
as well as they can lead each other. Of course they 
make occasional mistakes — u raise" a tune of one metre to 
a hymn of another metre, or commence a tune at the third 
line instead of the first; but these are almost always the 
effect of embarrassment from the presence of the white 
people, and disappear after a few meetings. They are 



8 PREFACE. 

but trifles beside the delightful and often overpowering- 
ly grand bursts of praise and holy song to which they 
attain. Many of the tunes they have caught from us 
have been modified in their edition of them, and have 
gained not a little in power and vivid expression by the 
changes. 

But even their genius for music is often surpassed by 
their gifts in prayer. Some of the sublimest petitions, 
and many of the most pathetic that I have ever heard 
have fallen from their lips. It is not long since a 
foreigner of large literary attainments and unfeigned 
piety exclaimed, after hearing their prayers — " It is a 
kind of inspiration !" It was the inspiration of unaffected 
and fervent love pouring forth in simple, quaint, and 
homely diction the yearnings of a pious heart. 

They prize such concessions, such wholesome levelings 
of master and servant before the common Lord and 
Father of all, very highly j nor have I ever seen them 
misunderstand or abuse it. And the removing all con- 
straint, and throwing the burden of maintaining order 
and advancing worship on them, arouses a Christian 
self-respect, and a sense of the true dignity of an immortal 
soul, that by God's blessing refines and ennobles the 
servant, without in the least disqualifying him for his 
place. 

But it is easier to describe than to prescribe. Let me 
suppose, then, that you whose eye now rests on this page, 
are a Christian matron and a planter's wife. Or perhaps 
you are only the timid bride of last week, just entering 
upon your exalted position, and only half aware of the 
high prerogatives with which the reverence and affec- 
tionate prepossessions of your servants have invested you. 



PREFACE. 9 

It is the noon of the Sabbath. You remember your 
walk, yesterday evening, to the " quarters," or negro- 
houses, as they are often called ; how you paused, on your 
way down, to hear the cheerful songs and light laughter 
of the field-hands returning in long procession from their 
toils ) how feeble and disabled age had tottered forth to 
a seat in the open air, to rejoice in a bright look and 
kindly word from you as you passed along — to remember 
that simple word, and repeat it, and treasure it up, 
through all the failing days ) how the troops of children 
laughed with glee at your arrival, lavished their uncouth 
bows and courtesies upon you, and scampered round the 
cabins to meet you and do you honour once more. You 
ended your round at the Hospital, freshly swept for your 
coming, heard the nurse's reports, cheered up the dis- 
couraged or down-hearted ones — for their spirits fail them 
at once in sickness — and gave the necessary orders for 
the morrow. Then you read them a few plain verses 
from the Bible ; and as you caught their glistening eyes, 
and heard the murmured " Amen" and " Yes, Missis," 
the thought occurred to you that the well needed this 
kindness even more than the sick. And turning it over 
in your mind, you finally told the nurse and the " driver" 
that (as there was to be " no church" — i. e. no service 
to-morrow) they must all come up to the big dining- 
room in their Sunday clothes, just after dinner. 
That is proclamation enough ; the veriest child, and the 
deafest ear, will know all about it before the sun goes 
down. 

At your first awaking, this morning, the rude and 
touching choruses of their " daylight prayer-meeting" 
floated in on the still and hallowed air, as they sang, 



10 PREFACE. 

" Free, oh free, my Lord, 
Free from every sin I" 

" Shall be over ! — shall "be over ! 
All my trials shall be over l" 

" Hail, believer, hail ! 
Hail from the other shore V 

And you reflected, with a heart not unanxious, but 
your eyes bedewed with thankfulness, on the work you 
have undertaken. And the freshest and sweetest of your 
morning prayers were those which praised a Father's 
goodness for the opportunity, implored his aid for your 
weakness, and his pardon for your unworthiness of such 
a privilege, and entreated his blessing upon the work. 

The hour appointed them has come at last, and here 
they are, shouldering their benches or chairs, and 
hastening to deposit them in good positions that they 
may kneel a moment in silent prayer before you begin. 
Now you enter, looking round kindly and recognizingly 
on all sides ; a hundred voices are whispering their 
salutations, and twice a hundred eyes are flashing welcome 
and affection on you ; while yonder white-headed patriarch 
rises and speaks out his " God bless you, my young 
Missis !" with the dignity and pathos of Jacob. Shake 
hands with him when he is done. His blessing is worth 
having. 

Then say— "I want one of you to start a hymn forme 
now — one that all know, so that all can sing." You 
need not fear any confusion ; they have their recognized 
leader of worship who will take charge of it. And when 
they " break forth into singing" — " On Jordan's stormy 
banks I stand," or i( When I can read my title clear," 
or "Jesus,, my all, to heaven is gone," join in their hymn, 



PREFACE. 11 

if God has blessed you with a voice at all. Join in with 
all your heart and power ; they will delight in it ; and 
your heart will kindle at it. 

Then let one of them lead in prayer, and let them be 
assured by your posture and manner that it is your 
worship as well as theirs. You will have to wait a little 
now before you can begin to read ; all the letters are 
blurred before your eyes. That last tender, importunate 
plea for " the dear young Missis that is going to teach 
us" has betrayed you into tears. 

When that difficulty is over, read them a short, plain 
tract, story, or sermon, of fifteen or twenty minutes' 
length. Read in a clear, cheerful voice, varying its tone, 
as much as you can, to give expression to what you read. 
If any word or phrase seems in the least above them, 
stop and explain familiarly and fully. Be short ; rather 
sacrifice something of the connection than overtax their 
attention and interest. 

When you have ended the reading, if you know any 
one of their favourite hymns, ask for it — or, better still, 
begin it yourself. If there is time, and they seem in- 
terested, indulge them in singing more than once. Then 
another prayer, and dismiss them for the day. Let 
them gather about you and shake hands — receive their 
quaint compliments and expressions of gratitude — let 
the gentle fervour of a Christlike heart appear in those 
last moments. They prize them, and you will be blessed 
and rewarded by them. 

Two or three questions will probably occur to the in- 
experienced, which they would like to have noticed. 
As for instance — " What if any disorder should arise V 
It would greatly surprise me if any real disorder should 



12 PREFACE. 

arise. The rigorous decorum of our public services is 
not wanted, and could not be enforced without injury to 
the spirit of the meeting. Bear with trivial, spontaneous, 
religious irregularities ; and if anything beyond these 
appears, a hint to the older ones will instantly set it 
right. 

" But suppose any considerable number neglect the 
summons, and are missing at the service?" It would 
be a great mistake, in my judgment, to enforce attendance 
by punishment. The freedom of worship is one of its 
great charms to them. But make the meeting interest- 
ing, in the first instance; and then, by a few judicious 
words, rally public opinion among them around you ; 
and you will soon conquer them. 

Their proverbial drowsiness doubtless suggests itself 
to your mind. If only two or three succumb to it, you 
had better not notice it publicly ; but if it becomes at all 
general, break off your reading at once, and call on them 
to stand up and sing. They prefer to sing standing; so 
they will not mistake the proposal for censure. 

And now I hope the Christian masters of the land 
will bear with me, while I make a brief appeal to them 
to enter into this work with new zeal. I have already 
said that the solemn obligations that rest upon them are 
the proper theme of abler pens. But, my dear friends 
in Christ, allow one whose heart has glowed with warmer 
gratitude to God for being permitted to labour in this 
work, than for any other blessing, except his personal 
hope of heaven — allow such an one to bear humble wit- 
ness to the blessedness of it. To give glad tidings to the 
poor was the daily office of the Lord Jesus himself; and 
of all the poor, they are the happiest objects of our care, 



PREFACE. 13 

who anticipate our kindness with love and reverence; 
and who, depending on us for daily bread and govern- 
ment, are almost as dependent on our faithfulness for 
the Bread of Life. They are a people of religious pre- 
dispositions, beyond any other race in the whole world. 
There is an undertone of plaintiveness in the negro 
character, which seems to find vent in devotion. In 
many of their tunes and improvised hymns there is a 
swell of yearning, forthreaching, longing, inexpressibly 
tender and beautiful. 

This, of course, mayor may not be genuinely religious ; 
but it is in religion only that it finds its fit and satisfy- 
ing object; and it is such a door of access to the African 
heart as invites and commands entrance. 

Your reward for these humble labours will begin very 
soon, in the more affectionate and reverent respect of the 
better ones for you. Their eyes and voices on Monday 
will often bear the impress of your Sabbath favours. 
Your prayers will be more earnest and importunate ; 
your toils will react upon yourself. 

Then will follow, as the Lord blesses you, the great 
change in some that were " without God and having no 
hope in the world." Some of the Christians will be 
more intelligent, or more consistent, or more happy. 
And some day, you will stand by the death-bed of a re- 
claimed and faithful servant, converted to God by your 
means. His eye swims ; his flesh fails ; his heart falters 
in its beating. But he gathers up his dying strength, 
and with labouring breath blesses God for a faithful 
Master, or a pious Mistress. He points to that heaven 
he is about to enter, and tells you he will wait for you 
2 



14 PREFACE. 

yonder, till you come. He sobs out one more blessing, 
and is gone ! 

What are discouragements, what are toils, what the 
backsliding of the fickle, the reproaches of the ungrate- 
ful, what the waywardness of the perverse, with only one 
such hope in view ? And then heaven, and then the 
King of Glory, and the blessing of his " little ones I" 
Brother, shall we be idle and faithless ? 

May the Great Shepherd bless this labour of his 
unworthy servant, and most richly bless all those 
who, either with these pages or in any other" way, strive 
to save this ignorant and benighted race ! Oh, that 
the Great Revival, sweeping on into these Southern 
States, might rest especially on these humble household 
labours, and quicken into millennial holiness and joy 
both masters and servants together ! 



PLANTATION SERMONS. 



SERMON I 

GOOD NEWS. 



" The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he 
hath anointed me to preach good tidings." Is. lxi. 1. 

Many hundred years ago, that wonderful and 
holy man, Moses, "the servant of the Lord," stood 
all alone on a high mountain. God called him up 
there, into the black and dreadful cloud that came 
down and covered it ; the lightnings blazed, mighty 
thunders roared, and the trumpet of God blew 
loud and fierce, till the people's hearts failed and 
fainted, away down at the foot of the mountain. 
Clear and loud, over all the tumult, the Lord spoke 
out the ten commandments, and wrote them with 
his own finger on two tables of stone. That good 
and terrible law ! A good and beautiful law, fit to 
make the angels happy, and to show what a glorious 
Lord our God is. Ah, if we weren't so wicked, we 
wouldn't have to call it terrible ! But now that's the 
true name for it — God's good and dreadful law ! 

(15) 



16 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

God kept Moses so long in the mountain, that the 
people thought he was dead. They forgot the loud 
voice that told them not to make or to worship any 
gods of wood or stone ; and they made a golden 
calf and worshipped it. Then God sent Moses down, 
and threatened to cut off the whole nation — men, 
women, and little children, for that great sin. And 
though he heard Moses's prayer and spared most of 
the people, yet he made them kill three thousand of 
the worst men, that day ; and afterward, he " plagued 
the people' ' — that is, he sent sore afflictions on them 
— for this wickedness that they had done. 

So Moses began to be afraid. He saw how fool- 
ish and headstrong the people would be, and how 
terribly God would have to punish them, if he was 
always so stern and swift to judge. He thought 
that soon the people would melt away and die in the 
desert, under God's heavy hand ; or else that some 
great army would come against them, and the Lord 
leave them, and so they would perish. And he 
longed to see God, and know him better, and to see 
if there was any hope for them. He prayed — 
" Lord, I beseech thee, show me thy face." But 
God said, " Thou canst not see my face ; for there 
shall no man see me and live ; but I will hide thee 
in a cleft of the rock, and cause all my goodness to 
pass before thee." And so he did. " And the Lord 
passed by before him and proclaimed : The Lord, 
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long- 
suffering, AND ABUNDANT IN GOODNESS AND TRUTH, 



GOOD NEWS. 17 

KEEPING MERCY FOE, THOUSANDS, FORGIVING IN- 
IQUTY AND TRANSGRESSION AND SIN." Wasn't that 

good news ? It was the very comfort Moses wanted ; 
and he got it from God himself. 

Of course he believed what God himself had told 
him; he would have been very foolish and very 
wicked to doubt his word. Don't you all agree to 
that? Everybody's conscience cries out that it 
would be a sin and a shame, if Moses hadn't received 
it just as God said it. And yet I'm afraid a good 
many of you are guilty of that very sin — doubting 
G-ooVs word. If you don't doubt it, why are you yet 
in your sins ? But we'll come back to that, after a 
while. 

I say, of course Moses believed that God was will- 
ing to pardon sin, because God said so. But there 
was a good deal to perplex and trouble him about it, 
when he came to think it over. First of all, it was 
very certain God hated sin, and was angry with 
sinners. So God said, the very minute that he told 
Moses how gracious he was : " That will by no 
means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children and upon the children's 
children, unto the third and fourth generation." 
And no doubt Moses remembered the terrible things 
which God made him write down in the Book of 
Genesis : how, for one sin, Adam and Eve were 
cast out of the garden of Eden, and death fastened 
on them and their children ; so that every man that 
is born, is born to die : how, after a time, when the 
2* 



18 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

wickedness of man became great in the earth, he 
poured a mighty flood over the land, and swept away 
every soul into eternity, except Noah and his family : 
how he burned up Sodom and Gomorrha with 
fire from heaven: how, only a little while before 
this, Pharaoh's army was drowned in the Eed Sea, 
because they would not obey God, and let his people 
go free. And even while Moses was up on Mount 
Sinai, God said, " The Lord thy God is a jealous 
God." 

Well might the holy man tremble and wonder 
how such a God was to forgive sin. Who was there 
to plead for sinners? Who could quench the 
wrath of the Almighty ? 

Then again, it was very plain that God loved and 
honoured his law with all his heart. Nothing else 
ever brought him down from heaven in such pomp 
and dreadful glory as Sinai did ; and that was to 
honour his law. Nothing else was ever written with 
the finger of God ; but he wrote down his law on 
the stone and gave it to Moses. And yet now he 
promises to forgive sin, which is " the transgression 
of the law !" How was he to make people honour 
his law, if he did not punish them when they broke 
it? 

It was all dark and strange, except God's glorious 
promise ; that was clear, and bright, and sure ! He 
would make a way of escape. Some mighty Saviour 
was to come into the world, or to arise among men ; 



GOOD NEWS. 19 

the heavenly Father had said so to Adam and to Abra- 
ham, and to Jacob ; and so it would be. 

After a little while, God taught Moses to do a 
very strange thing. He made Aaron, the chief 
priest, take two goats up to the altar, and confess 
the sins of the people to God, laying his hands on 
the head of one of the goats. So, as God said, the sins 
of the people were all laid on the goat. What next ? 
Why, one goat was killed and burned up on the 
altar, and the other one was turned loose in the 
wilderness. That was a very plain hint that some- 
body was going to bear the sins of men ; but who 
could do it ? u Who is able to stand before the holy 
Lord God," when his wrath burns like fire ? Who 
can turn back Ms curse, or catch the flood in his 
hand, or stop the tremblings of Sinai ? 

As the years rolled on, God raised up prophets 
in the land ; and they almost all had something to 
say about this Saviour that was to come. And at 
last they got all the good people to looking out for 
him, and wondering when he would come to set 
everything right. They didn't understand much 
about him, after all ; they thought he would be a 
great friend to the Jews, and help them out of 
trouble, some day. So they called him the Consola- 
tion of Israel. And they needed a Comforter sadly. 

Oh what a difference between the good old times 
in Israel, and those last days ! When Solomon was 
king, all nations respected and honoured the Jews ; 
they were rich and happy and free, for God loved 



20 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

and blessed them. They built the most splendid 
house in the world to be God's temple ; and when 
they prayed to him he came down in such clouds 
of glory, that for a little while nobody could stay in 
it, till the light from heaven went into the most holy 
place, behind the curtain, and shone over the ark 
of God that was there. Then came the prophets, 
one after another, to bring the word of the Lord to 
the kings or the people, to warn them about their 
sins, or to comfort them and help them when they 
repented. And yet they would sin against him in 
spite of all his goodness, and then the heathen nations 
were too strong for them ; but if they turned back 
from their wickedness, and gave up their idols, 
and begged God to help them, oh, how swiftly he 
came, and how mightily he conquered their enemies ! 
The king of Assyria brought a great army, and boasted 
how he would take Jerusalem, and spoke great 
swelling words against Jehovah himself. Then God 
sent one strong angel down from heaven and killed 
a hundred and eighty five thousand of his soldiers in 
one night ! So he trembled and was afraid, and 
hurried back to his country. 

But at last the Lord's patience was worn out, 
and he left them to those that hated them. Their 
holy and beautiful house, where their fathers wor- 
shipped, was burned with fire ; God's glory, the 
light that was in the most holy place, went back 
to heaven ; the prophets died, and no new ones rose 
up ; the kings of the earth conquered them, robbed 



GOOD NEWS. 21 

them, slew them, and God let it be so. What 
miseries they suffered, what cruelties fell on them, 
no tongue can tell. 

The people remembered those good and happy 
days that were gone, and the ancient promise of a 
Son of David to help them ; and they thought he would 
bring back the old times just as they were. No 
doubt they often sat down in their poverty and fear 
and sorrow, and wept for the days that did not re- 
turn; and said, "0 Lord, how long?" When will 
Messiah come ? (For that was what they called him, 
Messiah, the Anointed one). And as they talked 
about him, hope sprung up in their hearts again, 
and they dried their tears. 

But it wasn't only the Jews that were in trouble ; 
all the world was getting sick and tired of the old 
things, and looking out for something new. The 
old heathen religions were worn clear out. There 
was a time when the people believed in their idols, 
and worshipped them heartily — Dagon, and Baal, 
and all the rest of them ; but not so now ! They 
saw very well that the wood and stone gods couldn't 
hurt them or help them ; but where was there any 
better God for them ? The bad and heartless just 
mocked and blasphemed ; the fools said, in their 
hearts, and out loud too, There is no God ; the wise 
men disputed, and talked finely, and guessed, and im- 
agined; but they couldn't find God. And of course, 
the less they believed in God, the less they cared for 
man ; that's always the way. God made man to love 



22 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

and fear and honour Mm ; and if he don't do that, 
everything goes wrong. 

So the world went on from bad to worse ; the 
rulers were strong and wicked, and the people were 
wicked and miserable. But all over the world that 
wonderful and beautiful Hope kept beaming out: 
that a Saviour was coming to set everything right. 
They didn't know how he would do it ; they made 
very strange mistakes about it, but they hoped and 
longed and prayed for him. Old Simeon knew he 
would live till the Lord's Christ was come ; Anna 
the prophetess waited for the consolation of Israel ; 
the Samaritans said, " When Messiah comes, he will 
tell us all things;" the wise men in the East 
watched for his star. So the blood of the poor 
was crying out from the ground, and the heart of 
the good was sadly praying, Saviour, whosoever 
thou art, come ! 

At last he came. While the Virgin Mary 
was all alone in the house, a bright angel from 
heaven suddenly appeared, and said, " Hail, highly 
favoured one ! the Lord is with thee ; blessed art 
thou among women!" But lowly Mary couldn't 
see how such great things could be said to her ; she 
was troubled in mind at it. Then Gabriel said, 
" Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with 
God. And behold, thou shalt bring forth a son, 
and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, 
and shall be called the Son of the Highest ; and the 
Lord God shall give him the throne of his father, 



GOOD NEWS. 23 

David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob 
for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; there- 
fore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee 
shall be called the Son of God." And Mary, 
humble and good, and ready to do anything that 
was her heavenly Father's will — Mary answered, 
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me 
according to thy word !" 

Then the angel went to Joseph, her promised 
husband, and spoke to him by a dream in the night, 
and said, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to 
take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that which is 
conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. She shall 
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name 
Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their 

SINS." 

There ! That's the word the whole world is waiting 
for ! Jesus means — The Lord will save ; and the angel 
says, " He will save his people from their sins." If 
he will do that, everything will come right. The 
wicked rulers will grow kind and wise ; the miserable 
people will be comforted and turn from their wicked- 
ness. Wars will cease ; home will be safe and happy ; 
and best of all, when poor sinners come to die, they 
will die in peace, because Jesus has saved them from 
their sins. 



24 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Jesus can make a dying bed 
Feel soft as downy pillows are, 

While on his breast I lean my head, 
And breathe my life out sweetly there. 

But the prophets long ago promised that Christ 
should be born in Bethlehem. Now Joseph didn't 
live there, but in a place called Nazareth, a long 
way off. But the king of ail these countries passed 
a law, that everybody must go to the place where 
their forefathers lived, and have their names written 
down there. The king didn't know anything about 
Joseph, or about God either ; but you see he fulfilled 
God's word, all the same. That's the way in the 
world ; in spite of our wickedness, we help to carry 
on God's plans, whether we know it, or not ; whether 
we like it, or fight against it. 

So Joseph took Mary his wife, and travelled four 
or five days' journey to Bethlehem. But there 
were a great many other people, whose fathers had 
moved away from there, and they all had to go 
back. When Mary and her husband came, the 
tavern was full, and the people's houses were full, 
not a resting place could they find in all the town ! 
That was the same way our dear Saviour himself 
suffered afterwards : " The Son of man had not 
where to lay his head." 

At last, weary and lonely, as they could find no 
other place to go to, they went into the stable ; and 
there among the horses and oxen, the Lord Jesus 
was born. Of course they had no cradle for the 



GOOD NEWS. 25 

little child, poor strangers that they were ! So they 
laid him in a manger, a kind of trough where the 
cattle were fed. 

The world cared very little about the Saviour, 
but heaven rejoiced. In a little valley, close by 
Bethlehem, in the still, cold, clear night, some men 
were watching their flocks of sheep. That was the 
way they did in that country ; in the day time, the 
sheep wandered over the hills, while the shepherds 
followed them ; at night the shepherds drove them 
into the fold, and stayed by all night, to keep them 
safe. All at once, a splendid light shone out in 
the sky ; the old glory that was over the ark came 
back again, arid God's angel spoke to the shepherds. 
" They were sore afraid," but the angel said, " Fear 
not ; behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born 
this day in the city of David, a Saviour which is 
Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto 
you ; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling 
clothes," (that is, in tight cloths tied about him, 
which was the way infants were treated in that 
country,) "and laid in a manger." 

That's what the angel said ; and in a moment, 
instead of one angel there were thousands upon 
thousands of the heavenly hosts, with joyful hearts 
and mighty voices, pouring out sweet anthems 
of praise to God, because Jesus was born. And 
what did they sing ? " Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good will toward men !" Ah, 



26 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

that was a song worthy to be sung by " everything 
that hath breath," — God's highest glory made sure 
to him, and his kindest love poured down on poor 
sinners, and the poor, stormy, bloody, ruined world 
to have peace at last ! 

What a whirl of wonder and joy the shepherds 
were in ! Many a night they had watched their 
flocks, but never before that night — never before did 
they see a sight like that, or hear those heavenly 
sounds. Why, here was the good news come at 
last ! The blessing that God promised Moses, that all 
the prophets talked about, that good old Simeon was 
waiting for, here it was now, sung by strong and shin- 
ing angels over that little child Jesus in Bethlehem ! 

When at last the angels were vanished, gone back 
to heaven, to sing their new song before God's 
throne, the shepherds said one to another, " Let us 
go now even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing 
which is come to pass which the Lord hath made 
known to us. ,, And they went, and found, just as 
the angel told them, the little child lying in a 
manger : 

Cold on his cradle the dew-drops are shining ; 

Low lies his head, like the beasts of the stall ; 
Angels adore him, in slumber reclining, 

Maker, and Monarch, and Saviour of all ! 

All this time, some wise men from a far 
country were travelling to Jerusalem to find the 
great king that was to be born there. Somehow or 
other, they were looking out for Christ too, and 



GOOD NEWS. 27 

studying the stars even, to find out something about 
him. At last, in the very place in the sky where 
they thought they would find out something, a new 
star came ; shone out bright and clear, as much 
as to say, He is come, and I'm to show you the 
way ! So they started on their long journey, carry- 
ing some beautiful gifts for the new king, when they 
should find him. 

How astonished and angry cruel old king Herod 
must have been, when the wise men came and said, 
" Where it he that is born King of the Jews ? We 
have seen his star in the east and are come to 
worship him. ,, He meant to keep the Jews for him- 
self, as long as he lived, and then make one of his 
sons king in his place ; and now here the very stars 
shining on another king, and the wonderful wise 
men come to show him to everybody ! In his rage 
he determined to kill the holy child if he could find 
him out. So he hid his anger, and pretended to be 
very much pleased. He called for the wisest of the 
Jews, and asked them what the old prophets said 
about it ? Where was Christ to be born ? Why, 
in Bethlehem ; that's what Micah says, " And thou, 
Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least 
among the princes of Juda, for out of thee shall 
come a governor, that shall rule my people Israel." 

Then Herod begged the wise men to come back 
and tell him, as soon as they found the young child, 
so that he might worship him too. He tried to 
deceive them, that he might kill Jesus, but God 



28 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

took care of his Son, as you will see. The wise men 
started once more ; and behold, there was the star 
again, going before them, to show them the way ! 
"And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with 
exceeding great joy." It went on, and stood over 
that poor little manger where the Lord of glory lay. 
There they found him, and gave him precious gifts, 
and worshipped him. So the angels, the shepherds, 
and the wise men, all found out the Lord Jesus, and 
rejoiced over him. 

But Moses's question that he asked so many 
hundred years ago, wasn't answered yet. Here 
was the Saviour — this holy child, born of a virgin, 
but how was he to save us from our sins ? Have pa- 
tience, all people, and believe God's word ! God is 
his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. 
Only trust in this Jesus, and God will surely save 
you from your sins — love you and teach you — com- 
fort you, and make you good here below, — and 
bring you into his glory at last. 



Blessings of Christ's Advent 

Raise your triumphant songs 

To an immortal tune, 
Let the wide earth resound the deeds 
Celestial grace has done. 



GOOD NEWS. 29 

Sing how eternal Love 

Its chief Beloved chose, 
And bade him raise our wretched race 

From their abyss of woes. 

His hand no thunder bears, 

Nor terror clothes his brow ; 
No bolts to drive our guilty souls 

To fiercer flames below. 

'Twas mercy filled the throne, 

And wrath stood silent by, 
When Christ was sent with pardons down 

To rebels doomed to die. 

Now, sinners, dry your tears, 

Let hopeless sorrows cease ; 
Bow to the sceptre of his love, 

And take the offered peace. 

Lord, we obey thy call ; 

We lay an humble claim 
To the salvation thou hast brought, 

And love and praise thy name. 



The Reign of Christ. 

Joy to the world — the Lord is come ! 

Let earth receive her King ; 

Let every heart prepare him room, 

And heaven and nature sing. 
3* 



30 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Joy to the world — the Saviour reigns : 

Let men their songs employ ; 
While fields and floods — rocks, hills, and plains, 

Repeat the sounding joy. 

No more let sin and sorrow grow, 

Nor thorns infest the ground ; 
He comes to make his blessings flow 

Far as the curse is found. 

He rules the world with truth and grace, 

And makes the nations prove 
The glories of his righteousness 

And wonders of his love. 



SERMON II. 

J OHN THE BAPTIST. 

" In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in 
the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. iii. 1, 2. 

Many years after the things I told you, the 
singing of the angels, and the coming of the Lord 
Jesus into the world as a little child born in a 
stable, a poor man came out of the lonely woods 
and rocky hills and stood by the ford across the 
river Jordan. The road came winding down the 
hill out from under the trees, through the canes and 
bushes to the clear and rapid water; and there, 
close to the river, he came and stood, and looked 
around, to see who was there. He was about thirty 
years old ; he had on a rough long coat, and it was 
fastened round his waist by a leather belt ; poor and 
humble as he was, he was a brave and noble prophet, 
and he came there with a message from God. All 
at once, as some of the country people came to 
cross the river, he cried out with a loud and solemn 
voice, " Repent ! the kingdom of heaven is at hand !" 
They stopped and listened, to know what it meant ; 
and then he spoke such kind, true, and faithful 

(31) 



32 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

words about their sins, and told them such wonder- 
ful good news about the King and Saviour that was 
just coming, and would be there in a few days, that 
they gathered round him, and asked what he 
wanted them to do. They promised to give up 
their sins and ask God's pardon for them, and to 
look and wait for the Messiah, and to deceive him 
when he came, for their Lord. Then John led them 
down to the river, and poured water on their heads, 
and baptized them in the name of him who was to 
come. So they called him John the Baptizer, or 
the Baptist. 

Then these good people, as they went home, told 
everybody they met about this great Prophet that 
stood at the ford ; and they hurried down to the 
river, too. They hadn't had a true prophet before 
for hundreds of years; no wonder they were as- 
tonished and rejoiced, and spread the news all over 
the land. Soon, even the wise and learned men 
from Jerusalem, the fierce and wicked soldiers, and 
the publicans and sinners flocked to John, to hear 
his message, and to wonder if he was the Christ that 
was to come. " Oh no," John said ; " I'm not he, but 
he is coming, — I'm not worthy to untie his shoe. 
He baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." 
Who was this "John the Baptizer?" 
About a year before the Lord Jesus was born, a 
good old priest, named Zacharias, was burning in- 
cense in the temple before God. You know what 
that means ? Far in the temple, in the holy place, 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 33 

as far as anybody ever went, (except when the High 
Priest once a year passed through into the most 
holy place,) close by the curtain that hid the holy 
of holies, stood a small table, called an altar, 
covered with bright gold. On that altar the priest 
put a cup of brass or gold, with some live coals in 
it. Then on those coals he poured some sweet per- 
fumes that burned and rolled up great clouds of 
sweet smelling smoke ; while the people, that came 
to the temple to worship God, stood in the hall out- 
side praying. That was what they called u burning 
incense.' ' It was to show the people how God loves 
the prayers of his saints. 

Thus Zacharias was burning incense, when all at 
once, close by him, and right alongside of the altar, 
there stood the angel Gabriel ! The good old man 
was troubled at that sight, and fear fell on him. 
But the angel said, "Fear not: for thy prayer is 
heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, 
and thou shalt call his name John. He shall be 
great in the sight of the Lord, and shall be filled 
with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. 
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to 
the Lord their God : And he shall go before him in 
the spirit and power of Elijah." But Zacharias's 
faith failed him ; he had made up his mind to live 
and die, a lonely old man. No son or daughter, he 
thought, would ever sleep in his wife's arms, or 
comfort his heart when old age was breaking him 
down. So when the angel said, " Thou shalt have 



34 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

a son/' he answered, " How shall I know it is to be 
so ? My wife and I are too old to hope for such a 
thing. ,, That was unbelief. He forgot the mighty 
power of God, that called the very earth out of 
nothing, and it came. He forgot how Abraham 
and Sarah received a son in their old age, and ex- 
pected to receive him back, even from the dead, to 
fulfil God's word ! 

So the Angel gave him a sign, to help his weak 
faith ; but it was a sad and terrible one, to punish 
his unbelief: "Behold thou shalt be dumb, not 
able to speak, until the day that these things be 
performed." And so it was ; he remained speechless 
until after his son was born. But when his friends 
came together, and wanted to call the child Zacharias, 
Elizabeth said, " No, call him John ;" they asked the 
father by signs, and he wrote down, " His name is 
John." Luke i. 62. And while they were wonder- 
ing at it, his tongue was loosed, and the Holy Spirit 
inspired him, and he began to praise God, and to 
prophesy great things about this little child. He de- 
clared that God had visited his people at last, to redeem 
" them according to his ancient promise ; and that he 
would deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, 
so that they could serve him in holiness all their 
days. He said that John should be the prophet of 
the most high God, to go before the Lord's face and" 
prepare his way ; and the glorious sun was going to 
rise now, so the poor pilgrims to the heavenly 
Canaan, that had got discouraged and weary in the 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 35 

deep darkness, would have his light to shine on 
them, to guide their feet into the way of peace. So 
the people rejoiced and wondered, and said to each 
other, What manner of child shall this be ! 

Thus God brought both John the Baptist and the 
Lord Jesus into the world with signs and wonders, 
and bore witness that he had sent them ; but he did 
not keep on, pouring miracles and mighty deeds 
about them day after day, as long as they lived. 
That's not the way God works. When the time for 
spring comes, the roaring wind tears open the dark 
and heavy clouds of winter, and drives them swiftly 
out of the sky ; then the glad sun beams on the 
black, chilly ground ; leaves and flowers and tender 
grass wake out of their long sleep, and wrap the 
earth in beautiful robes ; the rivers and all their 
little branches swell larger and run faster ; the birds 
grow busy and sing sweet songs, and man looks out 
on the bright and glorious scene, and his heart re- 
joices because it is spring. But after that first 
wonderful change, things go on more silently, one 
season slides gently into another, until, almost be- 
fore we thought of it, the harvest comes on us. 

So it was with those great works of God. Won- 
derful stories, and true ones, went out all over the 
land about the birth of John the Baptizer and Jesus 
Christ ; but then, for a long thirty years, there 
were no more miracles. Many of those who knew 
about them, passed away to the grave. Good old 
Simeon departed in peace, according to God's word, 



36 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

for his eyes had seen this great salvation : Joseph, 
too, no doubt, the husband of Mary, had been 
gathered to the dead and " slept with his fathers." 
Others had forgotten all about it, as people do now ; 
their hearts were in their farms and merchandise. 
But God does not grow weary or forget ; he was 
making "all things ready" for Christ's great work, 
while the years rolled steadily on. 

As for John, the Scriptures tell us that " the child 
grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the 
desert till the day of his showing unto Israel." 
" Strong in spirit;" that is, he was a brave, true, 
sad-hearted boy and man ; he loved God and hated 
evil ; he saw how sin reigned among the people : he 
was weary of their endless worldliness and their 
hollow worship ; and he had rather live alone in the 
woods, praying and thinking, and longing to save 
his nation from ruin, than to join in their pleasures 
and sins. He knew they were to have a Saviour at 
some time, and he saw that Christ must come soon 
or his country would perish ; and surely he spent 
many days and nights, as Daniel used to do, in 
praying and weeping before God, confessing the sins 
of his nation, and beseeching the Lord to " bring 
salvation down." At last God sent him forth out 
of the wilderness, as we saw, to preach, " Repent ! 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and he 
promised John that he should see and know this 
prince and Saviour when he came, and have the joy 
and honour to show him to the people. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 37 

What did this message mean, that John brought 
from God ? Why should men repent when the 
kingdom of heaven was at hand, if they wouldn't 
repent before ? What had they to do with the 
kingdom of heaven ? What was this kingdom, and 
what is repenting ? 

" Repentance is to leave 

The things we loved before, 
And show that we in earnest grieve, 
By doing so no more." 

Repenting is finding out and feeling our sins. 
Perhaps you have been breaking the Sabbath, or 
swearing, or hating people, or indulging a bad 
temper, year after year, and never feeling the 
wickedness of it, though you knew it all the time. 
So hard and dead do our hearts grow ! But some 
kind word of a friend sets you thinking ; God's 
Spirit softens your heart ; you are struck with shame 
at your own badness ; you can't forget it. Then 
presently you begin to see what kind of a heart you 
must have, to go on so in sin and not feel it ; and 
still more, when you find the sin going on still, 
in spite of your feeling it ! You will be better ; 
you make up your mind ; you resolve with all your 
might ; and if sin came from outside, you might 
shut it out, being so much in earnest ; but it doesn't, 
it lives and springs up in you. So, while you are 
resolving, you are also sinning. 

And now great clouds of sorrow and fear begin 

to roll over your soul ; for you remember that Crod 
4 



38 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

hates sin. " God is angry with the wicked every 
day." Oh how terrible the steadfast heavens 
begin to look to you ! Not the nearest star, not 
the low flying clouds can you reach or change ; the 
very mist that drifts round you drifts on without 
minding you ; and what can you do with 

The mighty God, whose matchless power 

Is ever new and ever young ; 
And firm endures while endless years 
Their everlasting circles run ? 

His holy heart abhors evil, and you are evil. 
Tou feel that he ought to be holy and just ; but in 
your terror and shame you can't bear it. The more 
you think about it, however, the more you feel that 
he is right and you are wrong ; and guided by his 
mighty Spirit, you learn at last to pray to him 
humbly and earnestly to make you good. He hears 
and blesses you at last ; you give up everything to 
him ; you hate sin and love your God and Father ; 
you u give yourself away' to the Saviour. And this 
is repenting. 

But now you will ask me, how comes the sinner, 
who was frightened at God's just anger, to pray to 
him, love him, and trust him ? What we are afraid 
of, we hate, whether it's good or bad. And if we 
see so plainly that God must punish us for our 
wickedness, how can we help hating him too ? 

That's what made John bring the other part of 
his message : " The kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
The kingdom of heaven is God coming down to be 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 39 

our king. He ruled over the winds and the woods 
and the stormy seas, before ; all things except man, 
obeyed him already. " He looketh on the earth, 
and it trembleth : he toucheth the hills, and they 
smoke !" And now, if God wants to rule over the 
hearts of men also, he must win their hearts. He 
must find out a way to be gentle and gracious to us, 
while he is just and holy still. Now the Jews knew 
that already ; and they knew the way God was to 
do it was, to bring a Saviour into the world. So 
when John said that God's kingdom was just com- 
ing, those who had any heart to feel their sins knew 
something of what he meant ; and soon he made all 
plain, when Jesus came to the river, by crying out, 
" Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the 
sins of the world !" 

So, when the poor sinner is mourning over his sins 
and his danger, feeling the holiness of God and 
trembling at it, the thunder of his wrath booming 
over his head and making his very soul faint within 
him, only one thing can comfort or help him out. 
We must go to him in his agony and rage and woe, 
and tell him, who it is that can still the mighty 
winds and the raging of the sea ; tell him of the 
name that is above every name, tell him, "Behold 
the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the 
world." 

Then, when he receives that message into his 
heart, when he turns to the Lord Jesus as his only 
comfort and his strong deliverer, when he goes 



40 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

"just as he is," a poor, guilty, ruined rebel, to his 
Saviour's feet, trusting in his faithful word and 
mighty love, then the old things pass away and all 
things become new to him. He is no more afraid 
of God, because Christ has redeemed him from the 
curse of the law. He is no more in love with his 
sins, because he knows they ruined and nearly des- 
troyed him. He feels that he owes everything to 
his Lord's tender pity, and he must live for him. 
He kneels at Jesus's cross ; his stony heart breaks 
and melts ; his sins roll off ; he's a new man, God's 
child, Christ's soldier! So he has repented, and 
God's kingdom is come in his heart. 

Now you can see what John meant by his message : 
" lost and guilty people, God is going to send 
you a Saviour ! He taketh away the sins of the 
world ! Give up your sins, and get ready to be 
saved ! Repent ; it isn't everybody will be saved. 
When he comes, some will receive him, and some 
reject him : some will have life, and some will choose 
death. The time is short, and this gospel will go on 
dividing men from one another, the believers from 
the unbelievers, the chaff from the wheat, until the 
whole world is parted off between Christ's friends 
and Christ's foes. Repent, for he is coming !" 

And by God's blessing, multitudes of the people 
were brought to repentance ; they crowded about 
John and asked him to tell them just how they 
ought to live. So he told the soldiers -and the tax- 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 41 

gatherers, and everybody else what they must do 
and what they must leave off, and they obeyed him. 

At last, there came a Man and stood near John, 
that had no need to ask such questions. His face 
was kind and grave and holy, for ever since he was 
a little child he had grown " in wisdom and stature, 
and in favour with God and man." When king 
Herod killed all the little children in Bethlehem, to 
try and kill him, God watched over him, and sent 
Joseph and Mary and Jesus away down to Egypt, 
out of Herod's way. There he kept him for two 
years, until Herod died, and then brought them all 
back to Nazareth, where Joseph used to live before 
Jesus was born. And now, in God's good time, 
while John was preaching about him, and the people 
were all looking for him, here he stands ! Oh how 
John's heart must have leaped for joy ! This was 
what he was praying and weeping for, in the desert 
so long ; this was the meek and mighty King of 
Israel he told them about. Then it was that he 
cried aloud, as I told you just now, and said, " Behold 
the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the 
world!" 

As the evening came on and the people scattered 

and went home, the Lord Jesus came to John the 

Baptist. He wanted John to baptize him. At 

first, the humble and holy man refused ; all the 

others that came to him, came confessing their sins 

and seeking forgiveness ; but Jesus had no sin to 

confess. So John said, " I have need to be baptized 
4* 



42 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

of thee; and comest thou to me?" But the Lord 
wanted to show that John was a real prophet and 
that this message was God's own word from heaven. 
And no doubt he knew what God was going to do, 
as soon as he obeyed the command and was baptized. 
" Suffer it to be so now," he said ; " for so it be- 
cometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Then they 
went down to the river, and John baptized him ; 
and as Jesus came up again and was praying, God's 
Spirit came down like a dove and rested on his head ; 
and a voice from heaven said, " This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

And now John knew that his day was nearly 
done. He said, "Jesus must increase, but I must 
decrease." The next day he sent some of his 
chosen disciples to the Lord, to be his followers. 
The crowd began to follow Jesus, because he could 
work miracles; but John wasn't angry and envious. 
He knew it must be so, and he went on declaring to 
everybody that Jesus was the Saviour, and they 
ought all to believe on him. He rebuked sinners 
of every sort, small and great. At last he rebuked 
king Herod himself, for taking his brother's wife 
while his brother was alive. Then Herod threw 
him into prison and kept him there. He couldn't 
make up his mind to kill such a good and noble 
man for being faithful and telling the truth ; and yet 
he was too angry to let him go. That's the way one 
sin leads on to another. 

But the wicked woman, Herodias, hated John 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 43 

for what he had said about her, worse than Herod 
did. She could not rest till he was dead. And on 
a great feast day she sent her daughter in, to dance 
before the king and his generals and his mighty 
men ; and she so delighted the rash and wicked man, 
that he swore he would give her whatever she asked, 
even if it was half his kingdom. Herodias told 
her to ask for John's head ; and the wicked daughter 
was quite willing. She went back quickly to king 
Herod and said, " Give me here John the Baptist's 
head in a dish." Then Herod was troubled; he 
was almost afraid to kill John, and he wasn't brave 
enough to say, "No, that's too cruel a thing to 
ask." So at last he sent out to the prison, cut off 
the good man's head, and gave it to the fierce, vile 
woman that wanted it. 

The world is very apt to treat its best friends 
that way. Jesus once said, u Behold, I send unto 
you prophets and wise men and scribes ; and some 
of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some ye shall 
scourge and chase from city to city." And Paul 
says, " They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, 
were tempted, were slain with the sword; being 
destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world 
was not worthy." But it is a noble thing to be 
patient and true, meek and brave here, knowing 
that we serve the Lord Christ, and shall in no wise 
lose our reward. When that great day comes, and 
God takes his poor sorrowing saints into his rest, 
we shall not be sorry that we carried our crosses 



44 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

for Jesus' sake, as John the Baptist did. Let us 
be holy and wait on the Lord with good courage, 
for there remaineth a rest for the peoule of God. 



Sinners Invited and Entreated 

Sinners, the voice of God regard ; 

'Tis mercy speaks to-day ; 
He calls you by his sovereign word, 

Prom sin's destructive way. 

Like the rough sea that cannot rest, 

You live devoid of peace ; 
A thousand stings within your breast, 

Deprive your souls of ease. 

Your way is dark, and leads to hell ; 

Why will you persevere ? 
Can you in endless torments dwell, 

Shut up in black despair ? 

Why will you in the crooked ways 

Of sin and folly go ? 
In pain you travel all your days, 

To reap immortal wo. 

But he that turns to God, shall live 
Through his abounding grace : 

His mercy will the guilt forgive 
Of those that seek his face. 



COME AND WELCOME. 45 

Bow to the sceptre of his word, 

Renouncing every sin : 
Submit to Him, your sovereign Lord, 

And learn his will divine. 
His love exceeds your highest thoughts ; 

He pardons like a God ; 
He will forgive your numerous faults, 

Through a Redeemer's blood. 



Come and Welcome. 

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, 
Weak and wounded, sick and sore ; 

Jesus ready stands to save you, 
Full of pity, love, and power : 

He is able, 
He is willing ; doubt no more. 

Ho ! ye needy, come and welcome, 
God's free bounty glorify ; 

True belief and true repentance, 
Every grace that brings us nigh, 

Without money, 
Come to Jesus Christ and buy. 

Let not conscience make you linger, 
Nor of fitness fondly dream ; 

All the fitness he requireth, 
Is to feel your need of him ; 

This he gives you; 
'Tis the Spirit's rising beam. 



46 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Come, ye weary, heavy laden, 
Lost and ruined by the fall ; 

If you tarry till you're better, 
You will never come at all, 

Not the righteous, 
Sinners Jesus came to call. 

Agonizing in the garden, 

Lo ! your Maker prostrate lies ; 

On the bloody tree behold him ; 
Hear him cry, before he dies ; 

" It is finished !" 
Sinner, will not this suffice ? 

Lo ! the incarnate God ascended 
Pleads the merits of his blood ; 

Venture on him, venture wholly, 
Let no other trust intrude ; 

None but Jesus 
Can do helpless sinners good. 

Saints and angels, joined in concert, 
Sing the praises of the Lamb ; 

While the blissful seats of heaven 
Sweetly echo with his name ; 

Hallelujah ! 
Sinners here may sing the same. 



SERMON III. 

TEMPTATION. 

" And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the 
wilderness ; And he was there in the wilderness forty- 
days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts ; and 
the angels ministered unto him." Mark i. 12, 13. 

Jesus, our Friend and Master, knew what he was 
doing when he went down to the river to be baptized 
by John. He knew what a great, sad work he was 
beginning, what hard and unbelieving hearts people 
had, and how everything would depend on him. If 
he was faithful and wise and strong, he would work 
out a mighty salvation for all that took him for 
their Saviour ; and if he failed, all would be lost. 
And he knew what that dreadful word "lost" 
means, better than anybody else. Oh what a 
glorious and fearful thing man's soul is ! How it can 
suffer and rejoice, even in the world ! It can rack 
and wear out these tough and hardy bodies, when 
its shame and rage are stirred up. It can give 
strength to the weak hand, and raise the sick from 
their beds and make them well again, by the power 
of hope and joy. More than all, it lives for 

EVER ! 

(47) 



48 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

I say the Lord Jesus knew all that ; and he felt 
it was a mighty and solemn work. Instead of 
beginning to preach and work miracles right away, 
he had a great battle to fight in secret first. He 
had to meet Satan all alone, and conquer him, that 
the devils might know that he was king, and might 
obey him. So, when he came up from the river, 
God owned his Son by a voice from heaven ; and 
then " immediately the Spirit drove him into the 
wilderness, to be tempted of the devil/ ' 

And though we are so very different from the 
Lord Jesus, being so weak and wicked, and of so 
little use in the world, God often treats us in some- 
thing the same way. He gives us great privileges, 
and then he sends sore trials on us. That shows 
you at once what a great mistake Christians often 
make ; because they have great temptations, or 
great sorrows, they think God has forgotten them, 
or given them up. In truth, the trials are to get 
us ready for some great work and duty, as Christ's 
temptations were ; and if we are brave and faithful, 
God will honour us because we honoured him. But 
if through unbelief or weakness we yield to the 
temptation, then our opportunity is gone, and the 
noble work that we might have done is taken away 
from us, and given to somebody else. And I believe 
that's one reason why so many Christians have so 
little to do for God, they have thrown away their 
chancebj being weak in faith, and weak in principle, 
when their trials came. They are "weighed in the 



TEMPTATION. 49 

balances," as Daniel said, " and found wanting." 
And the Lord Jesus gave us a very, plain warning 
about it ; he said, " If any man love father or mother 
more than me, he is not worthy of me ; and if he 
love son or daughter more than me, he is not worthy 
of me. And he that taketh not his cross and 
folio weth after me, is not worthy of me." 

So, when " temptations sharp and strong" come 
to try us, let us feel, " Now is my time ! now I must 
be patient, true, and full of faith, or the Lord will 
turn away from me !" That's the way soldiers do 
in war ; when the thickest and hottest of the battle 
comes on, and the enemy is fierce and strong, they 
rejoice in the danger and the horrible uproar and 
blood, because they hope to show their courage and 
grow famous. But, as Paul says, they fight for a 
corruptible crown, and we for an incorruptible one. 
They may die in the battle and never hear men 
praise them ; but we shall live for ever. They may 
have glory to-day and disgrace to-morrow ; but if we 
are faithful, there is a crown of glory waiting for us, 
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give us 
in that day. Therefore " be thou strong, and show 
thyself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord thy 
God, to walk in his ways." 

Oh that each in the day 
Of His coming may say, 
" I have fought my way through ! 
I have finished the work thou didst give me to do \" 



50 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Oil that each from his Lord 
.May receive the glad word, 
" Well and faithfully done ! 
Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne !" 

For forty days and forty nights our dear Lord 
fasted and fought with Satan's temptations. But 
the Bible doesn't tell us what they were. We know 
he was in a waste and howling wilderness. Very 
few trees grow there ; the great bare rock is split 
open in pits and great gulfs, the wild beasts 
live there in caves and dens, and he was with them. 
At last, when sore hunger fell on him, Satan came 
again and said, " If thou be the Son of God, command 
these stones that they be made bread." 

That was a very cunning and dangerous thing. 
The Lord Jesus hadn't tried his wonderful power 
yet. The voice from heaven had told him that he 
was the Son of God ; but how was he to know 
whether it was true ? He was a poor woman's son, 
a carpenter, came from the town of Nazareth, that 
everybody despised, wandering in the desert with- 
out a friend or a home, or a morsel of bread to eat. 
Could it be, that he really was the King of all the 
earth, and yet left in hunger and poverty, beset by 
God's great enemy — nobody to pity him, nobody to 
help him ? 

Besides, if he was the Son of God, that is, the 
appointed Saviour, how could he fulfil his office if 
he died of hunger in the desert ? Why not use his 
mighty powers to save his own life, and carry on 



TEMPTATION. 51 

the great work God had given him ? That's the 
way people reason, very often. Sometimes a man 
concludes, because he has children to provide for, 
he may do dishonest things without sin, for their 
sake. He thinks (or tries to think) that it would 
be worse to let them suffer, than it will be to steal 
or cheat for their benefit. And Abraham might 
have reasoned so, when God told him to take Isaac 
his only son and offer him up for a sacrifice. " God 
gave me Isaac, and promised that in him all the 
earth should be blessed; now if I kill him, that 
promise will fail," and so he might have disobeyed 
God, and lost the blessing ! But he was not so 
foolish and obstinate ; he obeyed God, and now all 
men bless him for it. 

So the Lord Jesus felt ; it was God's work he 
came into the world to do, and not his own, as he 
often said afterwards. He was to obey, and God 
was to take care of him. God had watched over 
him, and kept him alive those forty days without 
food already. Should he be so unbelieving and 
wilful as to find food for himself, while God was 
supporting him by a miracle ? That showed that 
his heavenly Father had some especial reason for 
not supplying him ; and he dared not take the very 
strength that came from heaven to disobey God. 
No : he answered ; " man shall not live by bread 
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God." All those wonderful days he had 
lived without bread, just on God's word. Bread 



52 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

itself couldn't keep him alive against God's word. 
So he refused to make bread out of stone, when 
Satan invited and God forbade. Wasn't he right ? 
Isn't it better, if it comes to that, to die for God, 
than to live for Satan ? 

But the battle wasn't over yet. The devil 
brought the Lord swiftly out from among the rocks 
and dens of the desert to the beautiful mountains 
round about Jerusalem, and up to the top of the 
Temple, where the sharp, high roof towered up 
over the lofty wall that Solomon built, from the 
deep valley to the top of the mountain. So that 
from the " pinnacle of the temple" to the ground 
was hundreds of feet ; and if any man should fall 
there, he would be dashed to pieces. Now Satan 
said again, " If thou be the son of God, cast thy- 
self down from hence ; for it is written, ' He shall 
give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their 
hands shall they bear thee up, lest at any time thou 
dash thy foot against a stone.' " 

That was a very cunning temptation, too. After 
this, when the Lord did offer himself to the Jews as 
their Saviour, they were continually asking him for 
" a sign from heaven," or " a sign in the heavens." 
There would have been a sign from heaven, verily, 
if he had shot down like a falling star from the top 
of the mountain into their crowded streets, and 
landed safe among them ! Why, all Jerusalem 
would have run together and hailed him and crowned 
him, would have taken him by force, as they tried 



TEMPTATION. 53 

to do afterwards, and made him king. What a 
short, easy, pleasant way to win the people ! How 
much better than " going about doing good," being 
despised -and rejected of men, and not having where 
to lay his head ! 

Ah, that's one of our constant mistakes, choosing 
the short way, or the easy way, or the popular 
way, instead of God's way ! His way is always the 
way of the cross, and we don't love crosses. If the 
Lord Jesus had been like us, we should have lost 
our Saviour that day. But no; his answer was 
plain and quick, "It is written again, ' Thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God.' " 

In truth, the Jews wanted the wrong hind of a 
Saviour. They wanted a great general and a splendid 
earthly king ; he must flatter their wicked pride, 
and carry out their fierce hatred against their 
enemies, and conquer all nations for them to rule 
over. And thus, if the Lord had gone to work their 
way, he would have had to give up all hope of sav- 
ing the world. All his divine and beautiful glory 
of goodness, his great atonement, by which God 
can be just, and yet justify them that believe in 
Jesus ; all our precious gospel, would have gone to 
ruin together. And remember, when our spiritual 
darkness and sorrow is so great, and we pray to 
have it taken away, but it clings to us still, it is 
this same trouble — we are looking for the wrong kind 
of Saviour. Christ cannot give up his wise and holy 
plan for our foolish and wicked one ; and we will 
5* 



54 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

not seek him in his way ; and so our hearts go on 
aching and mourning when we might have peace. 
Let Christ he King over us in his own way, and all 
will be well. 

But the great reason why the Lord Jesus refused 
was, that God had not commanded him to cast 
himself down off the pinnacle; and if he had 
leaped off, it would have been to try God, and see 
if he would take care of his Son. The right way 
with God is to trust him, not try him. If he says, 
Leap off, or walk on the sea, or plunge into the fire, 
do it without fear ; he will take care of you. Till 
then, be patient and humble, and " wait for his 
law." That was what Jesus meant; " Thou shall 
not try the Lord thy God." Satan had failed 
again : for our Lord was able to trust everything to 
God, himself, and his work, and his honour — every- 
thing. And in that noble faith, so humble and so brave, 
he was too strong for Satan and all his temptations. 

Once again the Lord's enemy tried to destroy him, 
but this temptation was very different from the others. 
It looks as if Satan's rage was kindled, because he 
couldn't deceive Christ : and he brought out all his 
wickedness and all his power in plain sight. " Again 
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high 
mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of this 
world and the glory of them in a moment of time ; 
And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, 
if thou wilt fall down and worship me." What a 
sight that must have been ! All the splendid cities 



TEMPTATION. 55 

and great armies, broad fields and mighty rivers, 
mountains, woods, and fruitful vales, all unfolding 
and showing their riches and glory to tempt Christ. 
Perhaps that evil spirit thought it would be such a 
wonderful sight that the Lord Jesus would be com- 
pletely carried away, wouldn't even take time to 
think, but fall down and worship him at once, though 
he might repent ever so bitterly the next minute. 
That was his plan, and you can see how desperate he 
was growing. But there is one very strange thing 
here. 

Satan claims everybody for his own that doesn't 
give himself to Grod. "All this is mine," he says ; 
and then he invites the Lord Jesus to get it by 
worshipping him. That is, " everything else belongs 
to me, but the holy man's heart belongs to God." 
And Jesus doesn't contradict him, either. He seems 
to allow that the " kingdoms of this world and the 
glory of them" do belong to Satan. That's what 
this world has come to, by breaking away from 
God ! 

Now you can easily tell, to which kingdom you 
belong, the kingdom of darkness, or the kingdom 
of God's dear Son. You were born in Satan's 
kingdom, and if you have not come out of it by 
God's grace, you are there yet. How is it with 
you? Do you belong to Satan? Or have you 
honestly given yourself to God, with your whole 
heart ? 

But how did our Saviour answer the devil? 



56 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

" Get thee behind me, Satan ; for it is written, 
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
only shalt thou serve/ ' It might look like a 
splendid offer to blind ungodly sinners ; but not to 
Christ. He said once to his disciples, " Man's life con- 
sistethnotin the abundance of the things that he pos- 
sesseth;" that is, "Itisni what a man has, that makes 
him happy, but what Grod blesses. 19 Why should he 
want the kingdoms of this world, if he had to for- 
sake God to get them ? Is the devil happy, with 
all his power and glory ? Wasn't Christ happy 
even then, poor and lonely and hungry as he was, 
there in the desert ? He knew he was doing right, 
and God loved him. That was enough ; and Satan's 
splendid-looking rewards would only have spoiled 
his joy. 

Now you will hardly need me to tell you what 
lesson to learn from that temptation. Satan's pay 
makes nobody rich. It may look very fine for a 
while, and the blind world may flatter you, and tell 
you how wise you are ; but you will be cheated and 
ruined at last. For what saith the Scripture? 
" Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, 
on every soul of man that doeth evil !" But God's 
blessing "maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow." It 
brings peace here, and glory hereafter. 

Now when the devil had ended all his temptations, 
he departed from the Lord Jesus for a season, and 
behold angels came and ministered unto him. Ah, 
that was a pleasant sight, Satan hurrying away, 



TEMPTATION. 57 

scowling and defeated ; all his cunning words wasted, 
and the Lord's wisdom and goodness made clear 
and plain; and the bright angels flying down out of 
heaven with holy songs and shouts of praise, and 
comforting and waiting on our weary, hungry, faint- 
ing Saviour. Perhaps he was lying in the shadow 
of a great rock, or in some cave, "with the wild 
beasts,' ' worn out with forty days of fasting, and 
praying, and contending against the devil. And 
now his loneliness and his warfare and his hunger 
are over. The dark shadows have fled ; the 
angels that used to serve him in heaven rejoice 
to wait on him again, on the earth ! 

I know it was only "for a season" that Satan 
went away and the angels stayed with our Lord. 
But what a rest it was ! And what a great work 
was done already ! After this, whenever Jesus 
commanded the devils, as he did many a time, they 
felt that he was their master, and obeyed his word. 
And as he knew it would be so, now that this battle 
was over and these enemies were conquered, he 
could enjoy his rest without fear or trouble. He 
had heavenly food, without commanding the stones 
to be bread. God gave the angels charge concern- 
ing him, and they ministered unto him. And the 
kingdoms of this world were taken away from Satan 
and given to him. That was the reward he had, 
for enduring temptation ! 

There are three lessons for us all to learn out of 
this part of Christ's life. Let us never forget them. 



58 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

1. You see it is no proof of sin that we are tempted. 
Christians are often cast down and grieved exceed- 
ingly, because they are tempted. They think it 
shows such great wickedness in them to be tried 
even by the thought of sin. But that's not so certain 
as you might suppose. If your masters trust their 
property in your hands, and their enemies attack you, 
it shows that you are faithful, or you wouldn't be 
disturbed. And the more bitterly those enemies 
hate and try to hurt you, the plainer it is that you 
are true and faithful. I don't suppose anybody 
else was ever so terribly beset by Satan as the Lord 
Jesus was ; just because he was holier and better 
than anybody else. 

Only let it be certain that the temptation does 
come from our great enemy ; that it isn't our own 
wickedness rising up in us. Ah, that's the sorrow 
and shame of it ! So many of our temptations come 
from our own hearts ! But let it be certain, I say, 
that it is Satan tempting us, and we needn't be 
cast down about it, but " fight on" in faith and 
prayer, and all will be well. 

2. Next the Lord Jesus knows perfectly how it 
feels to be tempted by the devil, and he can sympathize 
with us in our trials. What a comfort that is ! 
When in God's providence we are shut out from 
friends and earthly help, and wicked thoughts come 
pouring into our souls like the waves of the stormy 
sea on the shore, thundering on us and almost beating 
us down, oh, what a comfort to see our dear Saviour 



WATCH AND PRAY. 59 

sitting above the mighty waters, and to remember 
that he was " tempted in all points like as we are !" 
3. Once more, if we are faithful we shall conquer. 
" God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be 
tempted above that ye are able" to bear; " but will, 
with the temptation also make a way of escape, 
that ye may be able to bear it." "Resist the 
devil, and he will flee from yon." It must be so ! 
When you resist temptation, you are fighting the 
Lord's battle and glorifying his name. Do you 
think he will ever forsake you ? Never ! 

" That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, 
I'll never, no never, no never forsake I" 

We haven't found out yet how Christ is to save 
us from sin, but here you see the great battle be- 
ginning. And you see how our Lord conquered 
Satan by his beautiful goodness. Let us all trust 
in him, for he will never fail ! 



Watch and Pray. 

My soul, be on thy guard, 
Ten thousand foes arise ; 

And hosts of sin are pressing hard, 
To draw thee from the skies. 

Oh ! watch, and fight, and pray, 
The battle ne'er give o'er ; 

Renew it boldly every day, 
And help divine implore. 



60 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Ne'er think the victory won, 
Nor once at ease sit down ; 

Thy arduous work will not be done, 
'Till thou hast got the crown. 

Fight on, my soul, till death 
Shall bring thee to thy God ; 

He'll take thee, at thy parting breath, 
Up to his blest abode. 



The Christian Soldier. 

Am I a soldier of the cross, 

A follower of the Lamb ? 
And shall I fear to own his cause, 

Or blush to speak his name ? 

Must I be carried to the skies, 

On flowery beds of ease ; 
While others fought to win the prize, 

And sailed through bloody seas ? 

Are there no foes for me to face ? 

Must I not stem the flood ? 
Is this dark world a friend to grace, 

To help me on to God ? 

Sure I must fight, if I would reign ; 

Increase my courage, Lord ; 
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, 

Supported by thy word. 



THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER. 61 

Thy saints in all this glorious war, 
Shall conquer though they die ; 

They see the triumph from afar, 
With faith's discerning eye. 

When that illustrious day shall rise, 

And all thine armies shine 

In robes of victory through the skies, 

The glory shall be thine. 
6 



SERMON IV 



MORE OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS 



" Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among 
you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did 
by him in the midst of you." Acts ii. 22. 

Now that our Lord had received baptism from 
John, and God had owned him as his son by a voice 
from heaven, and the devil had tempted him in the 
desert until he gave it up in despair ; now, I say, 
our Lord was ready to begin his work with men. 
He was to show them his great power and his good- 
ness, so that they would listen and heed him when 
he taught them ; then he was to give them his wise 
and holy counsels and commands ; and then he was 
to offer himself upon the cross, a sacrifice for our 
sins. To-day I must begin to tell you about his 
wonderful works. There were two kinds of miracles 
he wrought ; those that showed his power over the 
things of the world ; such as winds and waves, water 
and bread, trees and fishes ; and those that showed his 
power over men and devils. In my text, you see, 
the Apostle Peter says that Jesus was sent by God, 
and the proof was that God did miracles and 
wonders and signs by his hand. And I want to 

( 63 ) 



64 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

show you that it was even so ; that he did many- 
things which no man could do, " except God was 
with him." And so Christ himself says, " If I had 
not done among them the works which no other 
man did, they had not had sin;" "but now have 
they both seen and hated both me and my Father." 

Early one pleasant morning, Jesus was walking 
by the lake of Galilee, the bright and beautiful 
water, where he spent so much of his life. As the 
people saw him and knew who he was, they began 
to gather around him, to hear what he would say. 
The sun was just rising over the dark, bare, rocky 
hills on the other side of the lake, and the morning 
breeze curled the little waves, and drove them up 
on the sandy shore. Close by were two boats drawn 
up on the beach. One belonged to Simon and 
Andrew, and the other to James and John, and 
their father Zebedee. They were not quite strangers 
to Christ ; they had heard John the Baptist bear 
witness to him, when he cried out, " Behold the 
Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world," 
and they had followed Jesus, and he talked with 
them, and taught them. And after that they had 
gone back home to make their living by hard work. 
Now here they were, washing and mending their 
nets, getting ready to go home and rest after their 
hard night's work. 

Then our Lord asked Simon to launch his boat 
again, and push out a little way from the shore, so 
that he could talk to all the people at once, instead 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 65 

of having a few crowded close against him, and 
hiding him from all the rest. So Simon and 
Andrew laid down their nets and pushed the boat 
into the water, with Jesus sitting in it ; and they 
sat down by him and heard all that he said. How 
eager they must have been to learn all they could 
about religion ! I'm afraid many of us would have 
excused ourselves, because we were tired and hungry ; 
we would just have lent him the boat and gone home. 
But what a terrible mistake that would have been ! 
They would have lost all his wise words that morn- 
ing, lost the great miracle that he worked, and the 
joy and glory of being Apostles. So now, people 
often stay away from church because it isn't con- 
venient to go, and they lose a great blessing by it. 
Now when the Lord Jesus was done teaching the 
people, he said to Simon Peter, " Launch out into 
the deep and let down your nets." He didn't tell 
them what he was going to do, but just gave them his 
commands. That's the way he treats his people 
now very often, tells them what to do, and keeps 
the blessing hidden in his hand, to astonish and 
reward them afterwards. Simon answered, " Master, 
we have toiled all night and taken nothing ; never- 
theless, at thy word I will let down the net." That 
was faith and obedience. " And when they had 
done it, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes ; 
and their net brake ;" that is, it began to give way. 
"And they beckoned to their partners, who were 

in the other boat, that they should come and help 
6* 



66 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

them." And they came and filled both the boats, 
so that they settled down deeper in the water, and 
everybody could see that they were heavily loaded with 
the fish. Now, whether the Lord Jesus created these 
fishes just then, or gathered them by his mighty 
power from all parts of the lake, we don't know. 
But, either way, it was a wonderful work. 

Peter was so astonished, yes, so frightened, at 
such wonderful power in this plain, gentle, humble 
man, that he fell down at Jesus's feet and worshipped 
him, saying, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful 
man, Lord." At first you may think that was a 
very strange thing for Peter to say, but in truth it 
was very natural. When God draws near in his 
power and glory, it makes us feel our wickedness. 
And if we don't give up our sins, we are afraid to 
have him come so nigh ; we are frightened, and not 
melted. Afterwards, w T hen Peter had grown in faith 
and love, when he saw a far more wonderful sight 
at the Transfiguration, instead of praying the Lord 
to depart from him, he said, " Lord, it is good for 
us to be here ; let us build three tents, one for thee, 
and one for Moses and one for Elias." 

When Peter and the rest had worshipped the 
Lord Jesus in their wonder and terror, he said to 
them, "Fear not; from henceforth ye shall catch 
men ; follow me. " And as soon as they had brought 
the boats to land, they forsook everything, boats, 
nets, friends, everything, and followed Jesus. So, 
from poor fishermen, they became Apostles; followed 



SOME OE JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 67 

the Lord in all his wanderings, mourned for him 
when he died, rejoiced and believed on him when he 
rose again, and bore witness for him everywhere, 
until the wicked world, that killed Christ, killed 
them too, and they went home to his glory. 

Another time, he and these disciples were invited 
to a wedding in a little town called Cana. Jesus's 
mother was there, too. She had found out that he 
was a mighty prophet ; she believed he was to be the 
king of the Jews ; and she was watching for some 
chance when he could show the people who he was, 
and make them his soldiers and friends. While 
they were all rejoicing and feasting together, Mary 
found out somehow that the wine for the feast was 
nearly gone ! Now, thought she, now is his time ! 
and she hurried to the Lord Jesus and told him, 
"They have no wine. ,, But he saw that she was 
impatient to bring on the time for him to be famous, 
and he reproved her. He said, " What have I to do 
with thee" in these things? "my time is not yet 
come." That is, "You don't understand my plan. 
I will do this wonder, but I'll do it quietly : my 
time to be famous and glorious is not yet come." 

Then Mary saw her mistake, and said to the ser- 
vants, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it." Present- 
ly he said to them, "Fill these jars with water;" 
and they filled them. " Now, carry some of it to 
the ruler of the feast." And when they carried it, 
behold, it was no more water, but wine, and better 
wine than what they had before ! 



68 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

What a beautiful picture that is, of the way God 
blesses our poor works, and makes them worth 
something ! The servant could do no more than 
bring plain water and carry it here and there, as he 
was told. But while he was obeying, Christ was 
blessing his obedience, and the w T ater became wine ! 
And so you and I, poor, helpless, unworthy crea- 
tures, what can we do for our God? Nothing 
worthy of his glory or his love to us. But while we 
are humbly trying to do his will, behold, he puts 
forth his mighty power, and wonders are done by 
our feeble hands. The Christian's good works are 
Christ's wine cups. Despise them not, for a bless- 
ing is in them ! 

After preaching and working wonders for a while, 
the Lord Jesus chose twelve to be Apostles, that is, 
messengers, to carry his gospel abroad, and preach 
it all over the world. And though their great work 
was to be after he had gone to heaven, he sent 
them out for a little while, two by two, to tell the 
good news that a Saviour was come, and that all 
men must leave off their sins and get ready for the 
"kingdom of heaven." He gave them power to 
heal the sick and to cast out devils. So they went 
where he sent them, and preached. When they came 
back weary in body, but rejoicing because the devils 
were subject to them ; he said, " Come ye yourselves 
apart into a desert place, and rest a while. " 

Jesus and his Apostles then took a boat and 
went away privately to a lonely place on the far 



SOME OE JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 69 

side of the lake, where nobody lived. But some 
people saw the boat and guessed who was in it ; and 
as they couldn't find boats to follow him, they 
hurried along the shore, pressing on and on, to find 
our dear Lord, and hear his words, and see his 
mighty works. At last they found his boat drawn 
up on the shore. It was a smooth, level place, 
covered with green grass, and rocky hills and 
mountains rose up from it. Up among the rocks 
was a sheltered, retired place ; and there Christ and 
his disciples were. But when he came forth, and 
saw the people, oh how sorry he felt for them ! He 
said they were like sheep that had no shepherd, 
no food, nobody to protect them from evil, running 
after anybody that called them ! 

So he gave up trying to rest, and called the 
people round him, and taught them all day long, 
until the sun was ready to set. How patient and 
good our Saviour was ! and how he loves us, in all 
our ignorance and weakness and wickedness ! 

All the time, more and more of the people were 
gathering around him, until his disciples began to 
be afraid that night would find them all there in 
the wilderness without a morsel of food. They 
came to Jesus and advised him to send the people 
away, while there was daylight left for them to 
reach the villages and get food. Then the Lord 
said, " Philip, where can we get bread, to feed all 
this company?" " Why," answered Philip, "two 
hundred pence (that is, thirty dollars) would not be 



70 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

enough to give them all even a little.' ' So thought 
Andrew, too : " There is a lad here, that has five 
loaves, and two small fishes ; but what are they 
among so many ?" 

Then Jesus sent his Apostles to arrange all this 
great multitude by fifties in each company, and seat 
them on the green grass. No doubt they all wondered 
at it, and asked what it was done for ; but they 
obeyed quietly. More than a hundred companies 
sat down that day, to such a feast as no man ever 
saw before. For Jesus took the loaves and fishes, 
and blessed them, and broke and gave to the 
Apostles to give to the people ; and they did all 
eat and were filled. There were five thousand men, 
besides women and children ! So, instead of sending 
them, weak and hungry and weary, to find food 
among the poor people in the villages, he fed them 
first, and then sent them home, wondering and re- 
joicing. 

They found out, that day, how safe it was to 
leave everything else and attend to religion. In 
the sermon on the mount, the Lord Jesus told them, 
" Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or 
what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be 
clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that 
ye have need of these things." And now, when 
they neglected their very bread to follow their Lord, 
he fed them abundantly. And a few days after- 
wards, when there was the same need of it, he did 
the same wonder again, and fed four thousand men 



SOME OF JESUS* MIGHTY WORKS. 71 

with seven loaves. Then they knew that nobody need 
be afraid to follow him, for fear their bread should 
fail; "man shall not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God." 

But the people's minds were full of the old 
notions about an earthly king ; and they began to 
think what a fine thing it would be to have a king 
who could feed all his army with a handful of bread, 
and heal all their wounds and diseases by his word. 
They knew, by this time, that he didn't like that 
plan ; and the foolish and selfish crowds began to 
talk about taking him by force and making him 
king. When Jesus saw that, he sent away his dis- 
ciples in the boat they came in, and went back into 
the mountain and hid himself there, praying, until 
the people were all gone. 

The twelve Apostles were unwilling to go away 
just then; but the Lord "constrained" them ; that 
is, he made them go. But the wind blew hard 
against them, and they had to row hard all night. 
They had hoped for rest and comfort, and behold 
they got disappointment, and danger, and hard 
work. Ah, that's often the way with God's people 
in this world ! Just when they think they will sit 
down and take their ease, trouble and toil lay 
hold upon them, and they find out that " this is not 
our rest." 

While they were rowing hard, sorrowful and 
anxious and lonely, they saw something standing 



72 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

on the waves, shaped like a man ! They never 
dreamed that it could be a man, but thought it was a 
spirit. In mortal terror they cried out ; perhaps 
they threw down their oars, and fell on their knees, 
and left their boat to the stormy sea. But the Lord 
Jesus called to them in his clear kind voice, " Be 
not afraid, it is I !" Oh, how they rejoiced to see 
their mighty friend so near them in their trouble ! 
Peter couldn't bear to stay away from his Lord 
another minute, and yet he didn't dare to plunge 
into the wild waves in the dark, unless Jesus would 
take care of him. So he called aloud, through the 
gale, " Lord, if it is thou, bid me come to thee on 
the water." The Lord said, "Come;" and Peter 
sprung boldly out of the boat, and the waters bore 
him up ! But the rough water and roaring wind 
frightened him, and his faith began to fail. As it 
gave way, he began to sink deeper and deeper, in 
the water, and he cried out, " Lord, save, or I 
perish!" "Then Jesus put forth his hand and 
caught him, saying, thou of little faith, where- 
fore didst thou doubt ?" 

How often, Peter must have thought of these 
things in his times of trouble and persecution, after 
Christ went up to his glory ! When the wicked 
raged against the gospel, and against the Apostles 
like a stormy sea, and all their hard work seemed 
wasted, as it seemed that night while they rowed 
against the fierce and howling wind; then Peter 
would encourage himself and his friends by telling 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 73 

them how the Lord Jesus was walking on the waters, 
and coming to his people. And though the world — 
the wicked, heathen world — would rejoice, expecting 
to see the church and the Apostles conquered and 
swallowed up, he would cheer them on to faith and 
duty, and promise them that, while they believed, 
they would never sink. 

But the disciples had another story to tell about 
storms on the lake, that was more wonderful still. 
When their Lord and Teacher finished his sermon 
on the mount, he came down and healed some sick 
people that they prayed to him about, and then 
took a boat to go to the other shore, away from the 
multitudes. While his followers managed the boat, 
Jesus lay down and slept. Then a sudden storm 
arose ; the winds came roaring down from the moun- 
tains ; the clouds gathered thick and the lightning 
flashed ; while the waves rose higher and higher, 
till they beat into the boat and were like to bury 
them all in the foaming water. In their terror the 
disciples threw down their oars and ran to him, 
sleeping quietly on his pillow, and woke him roughly, 
crying, " Master ! Master ! carest thou not that we 
perish?" 

Then he arose and rebuked the raging of the sea 
and of the wind, saying, "Peace ! be still !" And 
at once there was a great calm. The winds were 
gone, and the waters were still, at his word. And 
he turned to his disciples and said, " Where is your 
faith ?" They had not a word to answer him ; but 
7 



74 PLANTATION SERMONS, 

they feared exceedingly and were amazed ; saying 
to one another, " What manner of man is this, that 
even the winds and the sea obey him !" But David 
had wondered at it hundreds of years before : " The 
floods have lifted up, Lord, the floods have lifted 
up their voice ; the floods lift up their waves ! But 
the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many 
waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." 

All these miracles were works of blessing and 
gentleness ; but there was one thing Christ did that 
warned the people of a judgment to come. When 
our Lord went up to Jerusalem to worship, which 
was once or twice every year, he used to go out to 
Bethany every night. He came out through the 
gate of the city, down a steep path till he crossed 
the brook, and then up over that high, bare hill, 
the Mount of Olives, where he often sat down and 
taught his disciples, looking down on the city, or 
out on the white villages that were sprinkled all 
over the brown hills. One of the pleasantest of 
them all was little Bethany — a little cluster of 
houses among the trees, where Mary and Martha, 
and Lazarus lived ; we shall hear some wonderful 
and precious things about them some other time. 

Once, when the Lord had gone out to Bethany 
and spent the night, he rose a great while before 
day and went back to the Mount of Olives to pray. 
There his disciples found him in the morning ; and 
from that place he went right on towards Jerusalem. 
So, as they went, he became hungry, having eaten 



THE PENITENT. 75 

nothing at all that morning. And seeing a fig tree 
covered with leaves, just as they are when they 
bear fruit ; and knowing that the time to strip the 
tree of its figs hadn't come yet, he went to it to see 
if there were any there. But no ! it made a great 
show with its leaves, but there was no fruit on it. 
Just like some church-members — all leaves and no 
fruit ; all profession and no practice ! It was a 
good chance to give such professors a warning: and 
he said to the tree, " No man eat fruit of thee here- 
after." That very day the fig-tree dried up to the 
roots ! So shall it be with every one that makes a 
show of religion, but disobeys and forgets God ! 

More and more, as we go on with the story of 
Christ, do we see his greatness and his goodness. 
He conquers Satan, he rules the storms, he feeds 
the people ; he can save us ! But we haven't found 
out yet, just how he is to do it. Our sin ! our sin ! 
oh ! how shall it be put away ? 



The Penitent. 

Prostrate, dear Jesus, at thy feet, 

A guilty rebel lies ; 
And upwards to thy mercy-seat, 

Presumes to lift his eyes. 
If tears of sorrow would suffice 

To pay the debt I owe, 
Tears should from both my weeping eyes, 

In ceaseless torrents flow. 



76 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

But no such sacrifice I plead 

To expiate my guilt ; 
No tears but those which thou hast shed ; 

No blood, but thou hast spilt. 

Think of thy sorrows, dearest Lord, 

And all my sins forgive : 
Justice will well approve the word 

That bids the sinner live. 



The Messiah's Coming. 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come, 

Let earth receive her King ; 
Let every heart prepare him room, 

And heaven and nature sing. 

Joy to the earth, the Saviour reigns, 

Let men their songs employ ; 
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains 

Repeat the sounding joy. 

No more let sin and sorrows grow, 

Nor thorns infest the ground ; 
He comes to make his blessings flow, 

Far as the curse is found. 

He rules the world with truth and grace, 

And makes the nations prove 
The glories of his righteousness, 

And wonders of his love. 



SERMON V. 

SOME OP JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 

" G-o and show John again those things which ye do 
hear and see : The blind receive their sight, and the lame 
walk ; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear ; the dead 
are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to 
them." Matt. xi. 4, 5. 

When that good man, John the Baptizer, saw 
the Lord Jesus face to face, he cried out, " Behold 
the Lamb of God !" But when he was shut up in 
prison, and couldn't see his face of heavenly love, 
or hear his sacred voice, it seems that doubts and 
fears came upon him. Perhaps he thought if the 
Lord Jesus was the Christ, he would hardly let him 
languish in chains and loneliness, and be in danger 
of death every day. Or perhaps it was only John's 
followers that doubted and found fault. Whichever 
it was, John sent two disciples to ask the Lord him- 
self about it. That was the best and most manly 
way he could take in such a case. 

So they went and asked him plainly, " Art thou he 

that should come, or do we look for another ?" The 

Jews often asked the same question ; but in all his 

life, Jesus never told anybody that he was Christ 

7* (77) 



78 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

•while they doubted about it. He told them not to 
take his bare word for it, but consider his works. 
If they were a Saviour's works, then he was a Saviour ; 
and if not, they must put their trust in somebody 
else. So he said this time, " Go and show John 
again those things which ye hear and see. The 
blind receive their sight, and the lame walk ; the 
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear ; the dead are 
raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached 
unto them." That last thing, the preaching the 
gospel to the poor, went along with all the rest. 
Our dear Lord wasn't satisfied with just healing the 
body ; he taught the minds and blessed the souls 
also. 

The first kind of miracle that the Lord Jesus did 
was that which showed his power over the world, 
winds and waves, bread, fishes, and trees ; you've 
heard about that already. The other kind showed 
his power over men, to heal them and make them 
live. Let me tell you of some of them now. 

One strange thing about it is, that the first 
miracles Jesus did, are not told at all. It is written 
in John's gospel, " Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem 
at the passover, many believed in his name, when 
they saw the miracles that he did. ' ' And Nicodemus 
when he came to Jesus by night, said, "Master, we 
know that thou art a teacher come from God ; for 
no man can do these miracles, which thou doest, 
except God be with him." But we don't even know 
what kind of miracles those were. Now if the 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 79 

greatest things about our Lord had been his miracles, 
they would all be written down ; even if Matthew 
and the rest had left out everything else. But in- 
stead of that, they pass by many miracles, to tell 
us other things. And so we will have to do; tell 
you a few of them and pass on to other things. 

When the Lord Jesus came back from Jerusalem 
the first time, he went to Cana again ; the same 
little town where he had turned the water into wine. 
The people were glad to see him ; they honoured 
him, trusted in him, and followed him to listen to 
his words. While he stayed there, and all things 
were pleasant and happy about him, there was 
trouble and sorrow down in Capernaum, where many 
of his friends lived. One rich and powerful man, 
who didn't know Christ himself, had a little son 
that he loved dearly; and the child was sick. 
Nothing shuts out pain and sickness but God's power 
and blessing ! Riches can't help us, nor friends, 
nor strength ; right in the midst of the poor man's 
joy, or the great man's splendor, disease comes, 
and agony, and perhaps death ! The windows must 
be darkened, afrd the merry voices hushed. The 
nobleman's son is sick ; he grows worse and worse. 
All the wisdom of the doctors doesn't help him now. 
They shake their heads sadly, and whisper to the 
father, "Your child will have to die!" 

Then some friends say, " Why don't you send 
for this wonderful man, Jesus of Nazareth ? We 
saw him work miracles in Jerusalem ; and now he 



80 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

has come back — close by, up on the hills at Cana." 
Then, off hurries the anxious father, too anxious to 
send anybody else, that might loiter on the way 
and waste the precious minutes of his boy's life — to 
seek Jesus. 

He found the Lord Jesus with his friends round 
him, listening and learning. But he pushed through 
the crowd to Christ's feet, and " besought him that 
he would come and heal his son, for he was at the 
point of death." The Lord tried him first for a 
little while, that all might see his faith and his 
earnestness ; and said, " Except ye see signs and 
wonders^ ye will not believe.' ' But the nobleman 
could not stop to defend himself about that; he 
cried out, "Sir, come down, ere my child die!" 
Then Jesus tried him another way ; " Go thy way, 
thy son liveth." How could the father believe that ? 
He left his child ready to die ; travelled those 
weary miles to Cana, doubting whether his dear 
boy would live even till he got there ; and now this 
man, Jesus, declares he has healed him without 
going near him ! Can it be so ? 

Ah ! there was something in our Lord's face so full 
of goodness and truth and power that it would not let 
Mm doubt. " And the man believed the word that 
Jesus had spoken unto him, and went his way." 
And as he was now going down the hills to Caper- 
naum, but still a great way off, his servants met him 
with joyful news : " Your son is living, and getting 
well !" Then he asked them when he began to 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 81 

mend ; and they answered, " Yesterday, about one 
o'clock, the fever left him. So the father knew it 
was the very same hour in which Jesus said to him, 
Thy son liveth ; and himself believed on Jesus, and 
all his house/ ' 

Oh ! what a happy meeting that must have been : 
the father, weary with his journey, and hardly 
able to believe his own eyes, that his child is nearly 
well ; the son, weak and pale, no doubt, but feeling 
his health come back every hour ; the mother, worn 
out with watching, but resting and full of peace 
now ; and all believing on the gracious and wonderful 
Saviour, that has brought back their boy from the 
brink of death ! We may hope this little boy lived 
long and well, and bore witness many a time to the 
Redeemer, when others hated and slandered him ; 
and that now that same Lord has cured him for ever 
of all sickness and trouble and death ! 

After this, Jesus came to Nazareth, where he was 
brought up, and went into the synagogue and 
taught them. But he would not work the miracles 
they wanted to see ; he put them in mind how often, 
in Old Testament times, God had passed by them 
and given blessings to the Gentiles. Then they 
got so angry with him that they tried to throw him 
down a steep place and kill him. But he quietly 
passed through the crowd in spite of their rage, and 
went to Capernaum to live. 

The very next Sabbath, Jesus went into the 
synagogue and taught ; and there the people listened 



82 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

and wondered. ( They saw he was a great deal 
better than the teachers they had before ; and they 
heard him gladly. Bat while every thing was still, 
and he was gently explaining his gospel to them, all 
at once there was a loud voice crying out to him, 
" Let us alone, Jesus of Nazareth ;" hast thou come to 
destroy us ? I know thee ; thou art the holy one of 
God !" There stood a poor fellow, possessed with 
a devil, his eyes rolling, and his whole body trembling 
with terror and pain. No doubt he wanted the 
Lord to help him ; but the evil spirit wouldn't let 
him pray. He spoke with the man's lips his dread- 
ful hatred of Christ first : " Let us alone ! what have 
we to do with thee ?" And then, wben he saw that 
the Lord would put forth his mighty power to cure 
the man, he confessed that Jesus was the holy one 
of God, to try and make the people believe that 
they had agreed together ; so that they might fear 
and hate Jesus as well as the evil spirit. 

But he rebuked the devil ; he saw what those 
cunning words were meant for ; and he said sternly, 
" Hold thy peace, and come out of the man !" In 
his spite and rage, the evil spirit tore the poor man, 
so that he uttered a great cry of anguish, and then 
came out of him. Our Saviour had conquered Satan 
in the wilderness, when he was tempted ; and now, 
however the devils hated him, they had to obey 
him. 

Then were all the people astonished and struck 
with wonder. They said, " What new thing is this ! 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 83 

for with authority he commandeth even the unclean 
spirits, and they obey him !" And the news spread 
swiftly all over the country, that Jesus of Nazareth 
could cast out devils. But Mark says, the people 
began to ask another question too, " What doctrine 
is this ?" What does Jesus teach? That was why 
he worked these miracles, to make the people listen 
better to his preaching. 

But the wonders of this great Sabbath day were 
not done yet ; they were just begun. As soon as 
they came from the synagogue, Jesus and his dis- 
ciples went to Peter's house. There they found his 
wife's mother sick of a fever, lying weak and help- 
less on her bed. After a little while, they told 
the Lord of her sickness ; and he went right to her 
side, took her hand, and lifted her up. " And 
immediately the fever left her," and her strength 
came back; so that she rose up at once and waited 
on them ! 

Then, when the sun went down, everybody that 
had a sick child, or a sick friend, or one possessed 
with a devil, brought them to the door of Peter's 
house, where Jesus was ; " and he laid his hands on 
every one of them and healed them!" Who ever 
heard, before, of even a little village where nobody 
was sick ; not a pain, or wound, or disease, left among 
the people ? Bat that was what our Lord did for 
Capernaum, healed every one ! No wonder the 
whole city was moved. It makes us think of the 
great land and the glorious time when " there shall 



84 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

be no more pain. The sun shall not light upon 
them, nor any heat:" and "the inhabitant shall no 
more say, I am sick." But that country is heaven. 
There this same Lord Jesus shall feed us, and lead 
us unto living fountains of waters ; and God shall 
wipe away all tears from our eyes. Till then we 
shall never see such another day as that Sabbath 
was in Capernaum. 

And yet that foolish and wicked city wouldn't 
believe on the Lord ! Hear what he said about it 
afterwards: "And thou, Capernaum, which art ex- 
alted unto heaven, shalt be cast down to hell ; for 
if the mighty works which have been done in thee 
had been done in Sodom, it would have remained 
until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be 
more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of 
judgment, than for thee." 

Sodom's wickedness brought down fire and brim- 
stone from heaven to burn up the city ; and yet God 
is more angry with Capernaum than with Sodom ! 
Oh, what horrible things must be in store for you, 
who have more light and more blessings still, if you 
despise the gospel and refuse the Saviour ! 

Now after this, the Lord Jesus went out from one 
town to another, through all Galilee ; which was the 
part of the Jews' country where he lived. He went 
about preaching the good news of a Saviour and 
healing the sick. At last, while he was in one of 
these towns, a man came to him full of leprosy, and 
prayed the Lord to cure him. 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 85 

The leprosy is one of the most horrible diseases 
in the world. It begins with a little, rough, whitish 
spot on the skin, and eats a hole in the man's flesh. 
It spreads on and on, slowly at first, and then faster, 
till it eats into the very joints, and the limbs begin 
to fall off, and the lips and the nostrils are all gone. 
It makes the breath so foul, and fills the very mouth 
with such sores and corruption, that the poor leper 
can neither sleep, nor eat, nor rest, nor breathe in 
peace. And because this dreadful disease spreads 
from one person to another, God commanded the 
Jews to separate the lepers from all the rest of the 
people. He said, in the days of Moses ; " The 
leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be 
torn, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering 
on his upper lip, and cry, Unclean ! unclean ! He 
shall dwell alone. Outside of the camp shall his 
dwelling be." 

The real leprosy was never cured ; sometimes it 

got well of itself, nobody knew how. There were 

other diseases that looked like leprosy at first, but 

they could be cured. And it seems likely that this 

poor fellow had found these spots coming on his 

flesh, and had gone to the physicians to see if they 

could help him. But, alas ! the sickness spread more 

and more, till they gave him up entirely, and told 

him there was no hope for him ; it was the plague 

of leprosy that was on him ! And now he must 

leave home and friends ; even wife and children, if 

he has any. He must not even take his little 
8 



86 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

daughter in his arms, and fold her to his heart once 
more, for fear she may be made a leper too. 

So, with a sick and loathsome body, and a heart 
full of woe, he turned away from all that he loved, 
to go and live in some lonely place according to the 
law. But he meets this great crowd, and hears 
that the mighty Jesus, that has done such wonders 
everywhere, has come ! Oh sweetly and quickly 
hope springs up in him, " Surely this gracious friend 
will help me too." Then he broke through the 
crowd, in spite of the law, and fell down at Jesus's 
feet. "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me 
clean !" u Others fail, but thou canst not fail." 

No doubt everybody else drew back, in disgust 
and fear. " Here's a vile leper, right in the midst 
of us," some heartless Pharisee might say; "he will 
make us all unclean ;" and he would turn away with 
frowns and hard words. But the poor leper didn't 
regard him ; he was watching the face of Jesus, to 
see if he would despise him too. But in truth, this 
was just what the Lord loved, to have a poor lost 
creature come and cast himself on his power and 
mercy, trusting him to save him. So, in a moment 
Jesus turned, and touched him, and said, "I will ! 
be thou clean !" And as he said it, the terrible 
pains left him; the loathsome sores healed; the 
wasted flesh came back; and the clear, smooth, 
wholesome skin he used to have, covered all his 
frame again. The Lord told him not to stay among 
his friends to talk about it then, but hasten away to 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 87 

the priest according to the law, and let him declare 
that he was cured. But even as he went he pub- 
lished it ; told everybody the joyful news that Jesus 
of Nazareth had cured his leprosy. 

But there was one other fearful disease in that 
country, called the palsy. Not the same that we 
call palsy now ; a slow, lingering sickness, that may 
last for years ; but a terrible cramp that twisted up 
a man's very frame with agony, and often carried 
him to his grave in a few hours. 

When the Lord Jesus came back to Capernaum, 
the people heard about it, and gathered from all 
parts of the city. Besides that, there was a great 
crowd that had followed him from one village to 
another ; some believing and loving, and some hating 
and finding fault. So it was, that a great multitude 
filled the courtyard inside of the house, and the 
gateway, and the narrow street. Pressing against 
each other, and pushing their way in, they listened 
to every word and watched every action. 

All at once, four men came down the street as 
fast as they could, carrying abed. Can that be a man 
on the bed ? Yes, his limbs all knotted together 
in his horrible agony ; moaning and tossing ; it is a 
man with the palsy. " Make way for us," they call 
out ; " let us carry this man to Jesus's feet ; quick, 
before he dies !" Butthe answer is, " We can't make 
room, we are crowded too tightly." There isn't time 
for them all to file out and leave the way clear, 



88 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

even if they were willing ; but they all wanted to 
see the miracle, if any is wrought. 

So they take up the bed and the sick man again, 
and go round to the back of the house ; carry him 
up the outside stairs to the fiat roof until they come 
right over the gateway where Jesus was. Then 
they pull away the earth and the boards that made 
the roof, and let the poor palsied man down, right 
at Jesus's feet. No doubt he stopped his groans, 
and lay still, and looked up to the Lord to see what 
he would do for him. 

Presently Jesus said, "Son, thy sins be forgiven 
thee !" Very likely, he began to feel better at once, 
but he lay there watching Jesus, and wondering 
why he said that to him ; perhaps thinking what a 
glorious friend he was ; so ready with his goodness 
and power to help all that came to him, and loving 
him already as he looked at him. But the foolish 
Pharisees began to whisper to one another, " This 
man blasphemes ! who can forgive sins but God 
only ?" They were filled with wicked joy, because 
they thought they had found something to accuse 
him of. 

•The Lord turned to them and said, " Why do ye 
reason in your hearts about it ? Which is the 
easiest — to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, 
Arise and walk ?" Why, one is just as easy to say 
as the other ; and he meant that likewise one was 
just as easy to do as the other. " But that ye may 
know that the Son of Man has power on earth to 



MORE OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 89 

forgive sins ; he says to the sick man, Arise, take 
up thy bed, and go to thy house !" 

Immediately his cramped limbs straightened, and 
he rose and took up his bed ; pushed his way through 
the wondering crowd, and went home. But the 
people were astonished, and said to one another, We 
have seen strange things to-day ! And they praised 
God, who had given such power to Jesus ; power to 
forgive sin. Well might they praise him ; for " it 
is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats 
should take away sin ;" ah, it was a joyful day for 
Israel when the people found out that Jesus could 
forgive ! 

Now, you see, we are getting a little more answer 
to our question, how we sinners can be saved. First, 
we found out that there was to be a Saviour ; he 
was to be Abraham's son, and David's son ; then, 
that he was the virgin Mary's son. Then Jesus 
was born, and baptized, and anointed with the Holy 
Spirit. Then he was tempted by Satan, but without 
sin. And now, he works a grand miracle to show 
that he himself has power to forgive sins. What a 
glorious and mighty King, all meek and lowly as he 
was ! Oh let us trust him, for " He will save us !" 



Confident Hope. 

My God, the spring of all my joys, 

The life of my delights, 
The glory of my brightest days, 
And comfort of my nights. 
8 * 



90 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

In darkest shades if he appear, 

My dawning is begun ; 
He is my soul's bright morning star, 

And he my rising sun. 

The opening heavens around me shine 
With beams of sacred bliss, 

While Jesus shows his heart is mine, 
And whispers, I am his. 

My soul would leave this heavy clay, 
At that transporting word ; 

Run up with joy the shining way, 
To embrace my dearest Lord. 

Fearless of hell and ghastly death, 
I'd break through every foe ; 

The wings of love and arms of faith 
Should bear me conqueror through. 



Not Ashamed of Christ. 

Jesus, and shall it ever be, 
A mortal man ashamed of thee ? 
Ashamed of thee, whom angels praise, 
Whose glories shine through endless days ! 

Ashamed of Jesus ! sooner far 
Let evening blush to own a star; 
He sheds the beams of light divine, 
O'er this benighted soul of mine. 



NOT ASHAMED OF CHRIST. 91 

Ashamed of Jesus ! just as soon 
Let midnight be ashamed of noon ; 
'Tis midnight with my soul, till he, 
Bright Morning Star, bid darkness flee. 

Ashamed of Jesus ! that dear friend 
On whom my hopes of heaven depend ! 
No, when I blush, be this my shame, 
That I no more revere his name. 

Ashamed of Jesus ! Yes, I may, 
When I've no guilt to wash away, 
No tear to wipe, no good to crave, 
No fears to quell, no soul to save. 

Till then — nor is my boasting vain — 
Till then I boast a Saviour slain ; 
And oh ! may this my glory be, 
That Christ is not ashamed of me. 



SERMON VI. 

SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 

" Verily, verily I say unto you, The hour is coming, 
aud now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son 
of God ; and they that hear shall live." John v. 25. 

These were the Lord's own words ; and the 
way he came to speak them was this : Whenever 
one of the Jews' great feasts came on, our Saviour 
always went up to Jerusalem, the holy city, and 
kept the feast. Not because the people were so 
good there, or because the city was better than 
any other place, but because God commanded it. 
And once, when he had gone up there to fulfil the 
law, he walked by a pool, called the pool of Bethesda. 
There were a great many of these pools in the city 
and round about, and they all had names ; pool of 
Siloam, the King's pool, and so on. Now this pool 
was called Bethesda (that is, the house of mercy), 
because of a wonderful work of God's goodness that 
he used to show there, every year. " For an angel 
went down at a certain season into the pool and 
troubled the water ; whosoever then first after the 
troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole 
of whatsoever disease he had." 

(93) 



94 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

So the sick people used to gather there, the lame, 
the blind, and the helpless of every sort, to wait for 
the moving of the water, and to try and be healed. 
And there were five large shady porches, built 
round the pool, where they could lie down comfort- 
ably while they were waiting. This was the place 
the Lord came to, and there he found a man who 
had been sick and helpless, and waiting to be cured, 
for thirty-eight years. Think of it ! before the 
Lord Jesus was born, he had been lying in that 
porch; and now that he has grown up to manhood, 
and come to be our Redeemer, there lies that poor 
man yet, growing thin and old and hopeless, but 
waiting still ! 

Jesus said to him, " Wilt thou be made whole ?" 
"Would you like to be cured ?" The helpless man 
answered very patiently and well to this strange ques- 
tion : " Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, 
to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, 
another steppeth down before me/' The Lord an- 
swered him, with that clear, kind, firm voice that made 
everything obey, " Rise, take up thy bed, and walk !" 
And in a moment he was cured, and took up his bed, 
and walked. This was done just as the sun went 
down ; and at sunset, the Jews' Sabbath began. So 
the people that met him, called out to him, u It's the 
Sabbath day, it's against the law for you to be carry- 
ing your bed." But he answered, " He that made me 
whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and 
walk." As if that was excuse enough, and so it was. 



SOME OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 95 

But the Jews didn't think so ; and when they 
found out that Jesus had commanded him to carry 
his bed on the Sabbath day, they persecuted our 
Lord, and tried to slay him. Then Jesus told them 
that he and his Father were always working for 
their good, on Sabbaths as well as other days. 
But that provoked the Jews still more, that he 
should call God, his Father. And that made him 
bring up his miracles, to show who he was. " The 
Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all 
things that himself doeth ; and he will show him 
greater works than these/' That means, " God is 
not angry with me for calling him my Father ; he 
gives me these miracles to work, to prove it. And 
he will help me to do greater works still, that you 
may wonder and believe, instead of finding fault. 
Yes, the dead in their graves shall hear my voice, 
and live." 

But if the Jews really didn't believe in him, when 
he said that, they would say, " Now let us watch 
him, and see if he raises the dead. If he does, 
then he must be the Son of God; if not, we 
will kill him for his blasphemy." And surely, any 
man would deserve to die, who claimed to be God's 
Son and the sinner's Saviour, when he wasn't. Let 
us see, now, if he kept this mighty promise to bring 
back the dead to life again ! 

Once, as he was travelling and preaching, he 
came to a city called Nain. He and his disciples 
had just got there, and were ready to enter in, 



96 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

when the gates of the city opened wide, and a great 
crowd came out, mourning and weeping loudly. 
What could the trouble be ? Presently, four men 
came out together, carrying a dead young man on a 
kind of frame, that they called a bier. " He was 
the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.' ■ 
And there came the poor old mother, wringing her 
hands, and bowed down almost to the ground with 
her grief. Lonely and heart-broken, she was going 
to see her only son laid in the cold and dreadful 
grave. 

And when the Lord saw her, he pitied her with 
all his heart, and said to her, " Weep not." Those 
who were carrying her dead boy were keeping right 
on to the tomb ; but he turned and touched the bier, 
and then they stood still ; thinking, perhaps, that 
he would preach to them there, or lament with the 
weeping mother. But they mistook it altogether, 
not knowing the power of God. He said, " Young 
man, I say unto thee, Arise !" " And he that was 
dead sat up, and began to speak !" Then the Lord 
told the mother, in her wonder and terror and joy, 
to take him back for her son again. And there 
came a fear on all, and they glorified God, saying, 
A great prophet has arisen up among us; and God 
has visited his people ! 

This was one of the very few miracles the Lord 
Jesus ever worked without being asked to do it. 
You remember, when he was in Peter's house, he 
did nothing for the sick woman, Peter's mother-in- 



MORE OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 97 

law, until they came and told him about her. Often 
he made them ask him over and over, and tried their 
faith in many ways, and then did more for them 
than they asked. That's the way with God's bless- 
ings now, most of the time. " For these things I 
will yet be enquired of," he says; and then, when 
we have prayed and longed and waited, until we 
feel what a great blessing we are asking for, he 
comes to give us more than we hoped. 

But this poor widow received exceeding abun- 
dantly, more than she even thought. Why, it was 
almost a thousand years, since anybody had been 
raised from the dead ; and people no more looked 
for such a wonder then, than we do now. That 
was the reason the Lord didn't wait for her to pray 
to him ; nobody ever dreamed of asking such a thing. 
Long after this, as you will hear presently, when 
Martha hinted to him about raising his dear friend 
Lazarus from the tomb, and he promised to do it, 
she hardly believed him. So God sometimes has 
mercy on our weak faith and our ignorance, and 
gives us blessings we were too foolish and unbelieving 
to pray for. 

Not very long after this, he came back to Caper- 
naum from the other side of the lake, and the 
people crowded round him again, and he healed 
their sick people and taught them. And behold, 
one of the rulers in the synagogue, named Jairus, 
came to him, in such distress and fear that he fell 
down at Jesus's feet, and began to beg him, and 
9 



98 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

plead with him, and urge him greatly, to come to 
his house and save him from the dreadful sorrow 
that was coming. " My little daughter lieth at the 
point of death," he said ; " come and lay thy hands 
on her, that she may be healed ; and she shall live." 
The Bible doesn't tell us why he begged so hard ; 
he seemed to believe the Lord was able to do this, 
for he says, " Come and lay thy hands on her, and 
she shall live. ,, Perhaps Jesus put on a stern look 
at first, to try him, and make him think more of his 
blessing when he got it. Perhaps he delayed on 
purpose, that the little girl might die before they got 
there. 

Jesus went with him, though ; and a great mul- 
titude followed, and pressed on the Lord to hear 
every word, and see every action. Presently the 
Lord stopped, and turned round in the crowd, and 
said, u Who touched me ?" Those that were closest 
to him all denied it ; they hadn't touched him. Still 
he kept asking, "Who was it? somebody touched 
me, for I felt the virtue go out from me to heal some- 
body." Peter and the other disciples were as- 
tonished that Jesus should linger so, when the child 
was dying. They might say, " You see how the crowd 
is pressing up to you and jostling one against another ; 
and how can you ask who touched you ? Some one 
has stumbled against you." Still the Lord stood 
there and questioned the people. Oh, how the poor 
grieving father's heart must have ached, all that 
time ! 



MORE OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 99 

At last the woman that touched him, finding that 
she could not hide what she had done, and that she 
was partly healed already, came trembling — afraid 
that our dear Lord was angry with her — fell down 
at his feet and told him all. " Sir, I'm a poor 
afflicted creature ; these twelve years I have had an 
issue of blood ; 1 have spent all my property on the 
physicians, and they made me nothing better, but 
rather worse. I came behind thee secretly in the 
crowd ; for I said in my heart, If I can but touch 
the hem of his garment, I shall be cured. And so 
it was : for in a moment my blood was stanched, 
and I felt in my body that I was healed of that 
plague." Then the Lord looked kindly on her, and 
said, " Daughter, thou needst not fear ; thy faith 
hath made thee whole ; go in peace." 

But now, a man comes pushing through the mul- 
titude, straight up to Jairus ; and he says, "Trouble 
not the master any more, thy daughter is dead !" Poor 
man ! there he had stood, waiting, and wondering, 
and weeping silently, afraid (perhaps) to urge Jesus 
any more ; and now, it is all over ! His dear little 
lamb, his joy and comfort for twelve years, is gone; 
she'll come back to his arms and his heart no more ! 
But no ; Jesus heard the sad message ; and as soon 
as he heard it, he said, " Be not afraid, Jairus, only 
believe" 

Then the vast multitude hastened on again, to 
the house of woe. Soon they could hear the loud 
cries and lamentations, that told them death was 



100 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

there, but the Lord only pressed on. "When they 
came to the house, he made them all stand back ; 
even his disciples had to wait outside. He took 
Peter and James and John, Jairus and the little 
girl's mother, and went in where the poor little 
thing was laid out. There were the hired mourners 
clapping their hands and tearing their hair, and 
screaming aloud ; but he sent them all out of the 
room, and took the child's hand, and said to her, 
" Maiden, arise !" And immediately she rose up off 
the bed and walked ! Oh what wonder and joy 
filled the mother's and father's heart ! Don't you 
suppose he felt ashamed of his impatience and terror 
on the way ? The Lord only held back the blessing 
a little while, to make it more glorious when it did 
come. 

Jesus now charged them strictly not to talk about 
it, but to give the damsel something to eat. No 
doubt that was to keep them from boasting, and 
from showing their child to everybody as the one 
that had been dead and was alive again, until her 
mind was filled with vanity and pride. He wanted 
them to take her back into the family, as their dear 
little daughter, cherish and train her, just as they 
would have done if she had got well of some terrible 
sickness. They would have loved her more, and 
been more gentle with her, but they wouldn't have 
made a wonder of her ; and that was what the Lord 
wanted. 

Once more, before his death, the Lord brought 



MORE OF JESUS MIGHTY WORKS. 101 

back a dead man to life ; and that is such a beauti- 
ful and important story, that the Apostle John takes 
nearly a whole chapter, out of his short Gospel, to 
tell it in. 

Jesus had been teaching in Jerusalem ; and the 
people got so enraged at what he said, that they 
took up stones to stone him ! That was the way 
they paid him back for all his love and his mighty 
miracles. After that, he did no more wonders of 
healing and mercy for the people, and only one for 
his nearest friends ; and that's the one we are to 
hear about now. He pushed through the angry 
crowd that wanted to murder him, and went away 
two days' journey, over the river Jordan ; and there 
he stayed. 

Now. the Lord had three very dear friends, living in 
the little village of Bethany, close to Jerusalem, 
just over the hill that they called the Mount of 
Olives. They were a brother and two sisters ; 
Lazarus, and Mary and Martha. Lazarus was taken 
sick ; being Jesus's friend didn't save him from 
affliction. The Bible says, "Whotn he loveth, he 
chasteneth," and so it was with Lazarus. 

Then his sisters sent a message all the way over 
Jordan to Jesus, saying, "Lord, he whom thou 
lovest is sick." That was just right; they sent at 
once, as soon as trouble came ; and they claimed 
the blessing from the Lord's love, although he had 
let the trouble come on them. They didn't say, as 
poor unbelieving Christians so often think now, "If 
9* 



102 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

the Lord loved him, he would keep him from sick- 
ness, and us from sorrow." No; they claimed his 
love, and held on to it, all the more because they 
did not understand his ways. Remember that, 
when you go to pray in time of trouble. Don't say, 
" Lord, I did think thou didst love me, but I see by 
this affliction that I was mistaken.' ' No ! say, 
"Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick, or in sorrow." 
But what if we are guilty, impenitent, hard-hearted 
sinners ? Ah ! I can't advise them to do anything, 
but go and fall at Jesus's feet, confessing their sins 
and trusting in his blood. When that's done, then 
they can claim his love too. 

When the Lord received that message, he said, 
" This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory 
of God, that the Son of God may be glorified there- 
by." But, strange as you may think it, just about 
the time that Jesus said that, Lazarus died ! How 
can that be explained, that the Lord should say the 
sickness was not unto death, and yet the man 
died? 

Why, it means that this sickness wasn't like 
deadly sickness generally, just to take the man out 
of the world once for all, and bring his life here to 
a final close. He died, that he might be raised 
again by the mighty power of the Son of God. 
That's what it means ; his sickness was not merely 
to bring him to death, but to glorify God and our 
Saviour. Don't you suppose Lazarus would have 



MOKE OF JESUS' MIGHTY WOBKS. 103 

been willing to die, if he had known how his dear 
Lord would be glorified by it ? 

Here comes in another strange part of the story. 
"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and 
Lazarus. Therefore, when he had heard that he 
was sick, he abode two days still in the place where 
he was." That was a strange way of showing his 
love; to leave Lazarus in his grave, and his sisters 
lonely and almost heart-broken, when he could have 
saved them all that sorrow by one word ! But the 
Lord was wise and strong as well as good. He 
meant to show them the glory of God, as it never 
was seen before since the world was made. So he 
left them to bear this short grief, and paid them for 
it with a joy that will last for ever — a joy and com- 
fort, not for themselves only, but for all the people 
of God. Which of us, that has buried his dead out 
of his sight, hasn't stood by the dark and chilly 
grave, and remembered Lazarus, and been comforted ? 
When our mourning, doubting hearts ask, " Can these 
dry bones live?" Faith answers, " The Lord Jesus 
will say, Arise ! and the dead will live." 

After two days, Jesus said to his disciples, Let 
us go into Judea again. That was the country 
round Jerusalem. But they answered, "Master, 
the Jews of late sought to stone thee ; and goest 
thou thither again?" Ah, they little knew that 
was the very last time they would go into Judea with 
him ! He said, " Are there not twelve hours in the 
day ? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth 



104 PLANTATION SEEMONS. 

not, because he seeth the sun. But if he walk in 
the night he stumbleth." That is, we have just so 
much time to do all our work, and no more. What 
we do, we must do now. The night comes, when 
no man can work. 

Then he said, " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth : but 
I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." They 
didn't understand him very clearly; but they an- 
swered, " Lord, if he sleeps, he will do well ; no 
need for us now to go back to that dangerous coun- 
try." As if this mighty Saviour wasn't able to 
take care of them ! 

Now Jesus said plainly, " Lazarus is dead. And 
I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so 
that ye may believe ; nevertheless, let us go unto 
him." Neither did they understand that saying; 
but they saw he was determined to go back. Then 
said Thomas, " Let us also go that we may die with 
him." Brave Thomas ! he loved his Lord nobly, 
but he didn't believe on him enough. 

The journey to Bethany took two days more ; so 
when Jesus and his disciples arrived, Lazarus had 
lain in the grave four days already. Mary and 
Martha were still weeping at home, and many Jews 
from Jerusalem had come there to comfort them 
about their brother. Alas ! man's consolation is not 
worth much in such a grief. Only the Lord can 
dry up those tears. 

When they came near Bethany, some one saw 
them coming, and ran and whispered to Martha, 



MOEE OF JESUS' MIGHTY WORKS. 105 

"The master is come!" Then she left her sister 
there and went to meet Jesus ; and when she saw 
him, she said, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my 
brother had not died." She could hardly help 
finding fault with him for not coming. "But T 
know/' she said, "that even now, whatsoever thou 
wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. ,, That was 
a plain hint that it was not too late now for him to 
help her. As soon as Jesus heard that, he said, 
" Yes, thy brother shall rise again." Then Martha's 
heart failed her again ; and she said, " I know that 
he shall rise again in the resurrection, at the last 
day." Oh how many Christians are like Martha; 
with faith enough to pray, but not faith enough to 
believe the promise and expect the blessing ! 

Now the Lord wanted her to know that the power 
to make men rise from the dead wasn't in the last day ; 
it was in Am; and so he told her. U I am the resurrec- 
tion, and the life ! He that believeth in me, though he 
were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth 

AND BELIEVETH IN ME, SHALL NEVER DIE. Believest 

thou this ?" Then Martha's heart was stirred, and her 
faith grew strong. She answered, " Yea, Lord ! I 
believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, that 
should come into the world." 

And when she had said that, she went and called 
Mary secretly, and she rose up quickly, and came 
outside of the little town, where Jesus was waiting, 
in the same place that Martha first met him. The 
Jews thought she was gone again to the grave to 



106 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

weep there ; and they followed her. When she met 
Jesus, she said the same thing that Martha did, u Lor d, 
if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died !" 

Then was our dear Saviour's heart troubled, when 
he saw them all weeping. He groaned aloud, and 
said, " Where have ye laid him?" And as they 
went to show him, Jesus wept. Truly said the 
prophet, " In all our afflictions he was afflicted !" 

Some of the Jews saw how kind and tender he 
was ; they said, " Behold how he loved him !" But 
others mocked and doubted, saying, " Couldn't he 
have kept him from dying ? He opened the eyes 
of the blind, even !" Jesus, still groaning, came 
to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone was rolled 
against the door. 

Jesus said, " Take away the stone." But poor 
Martha's faith failed her again. She thought he 
only wanted to see his friend's body, and weep over 
it. She told him that the corpse must be decayed, 
for he had been dead four days. His answer was, 
" Have I not promised, if you would believe, you 
should see the glory of God?" So they rolled 
away the stone, wondering and waiting to see what 
he would do. 

First of all, he praised God ; saying, " Father, I 
thank thee that thou hast heard me ! And I know 
that thou hearest me always ; but because of the 
people that stand by I said it, that they may believe 
that thou hast sent me." And when he had thus 
spoken, he cried with a loud voice, " Lazarus, come 



DEATH DISARMED. 107 

forth !" And he that was dead came forth, bound 
hand and foot with grave-clothes ; and his face was 
bound about with a napkin. Jesus said, " Loose him, 
and let him go." 

Of all the miracles that ever were done, that was 
the most splendid. The man being dead so long, 
our Lord either had to create his body again, as it 
were, out of corruption and decay ; or he must have 
been working a miracle, all those days and nights, 
to keep it from corrupting. So Jesus proved that 
he was the Son of God, and the Judge of all the 
earth. He says, " The hour is coming when all 
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth : they that have done good, unto the 
resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, 
unto the resurrection of damnation." Oh that we 
may meet him as a Saviour, before we meet him as 
a Judge ! Prepare, prepare, my soul, to meet him ! 



Death Disarmed. 

Why do we mourn departing friends, 

Or shake at death's alarms ? 
'Tis but the voice that Jesus sends, 

To call them to his arms. 

Are we not tending upward too, 

As fast as time can move ? 
Nor should we wish our hours more slow, 

To keep us from our love. 



108 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Why should we tremble to convey 
Their bodies to the tomb ? 

There the dear flesh of Jesus lay, 
And left a long perfume. 

The graves of all the saints he blest, 

And softened every bed ; 
"Where should the dying members rest, 

But with their dying Head ? 

Thence he arose, ascending high, 
And showed our feet the way ; 

Up to the Lord our flesh shall fly, 
At the great rising day. 



Life the only accepted Time 

While life prolongs its precious light, 
Mercy is found, and peace is given ; 
But soon, ah soon ! approaching night 
Shall blot out every hope of heaven. 

While God invites, how blest the day ! 
How sweet the gospel's charming sound ! 
" Come, sinners, haste, oh haste away, 
While yet a pardoning God he's found. 

" Soon, borne on time's most rapid wing, 
Shall death command you to the grave, 
Before his bar your spirits bring, 
And none be found to hear, or save. 



LIFE THE ONLY ACCEPTED TIME. 109 

" In that lone land of deep despair, 
No Sabbath's heavenly light shall rise ; 
No God regard your bitter prayer, 
Nor Saviour call you to the skies." 

No wonders to the dead are shown, 

(The wonders of redeeming love :) 

No voice his glorious truth makes known, 

Nor sings the bliss of climes above. 

Silence, and solitude, and gloom, 

In these forgetful realms appear, 

Deep sorrows fill the dismal tomb, 

And hope shall never enter there. 

10 



SERMON VII. 

WISE WORDS. 

"The officers answered, Never man spake like this 
man." John viii. 46. 

When the people began to think the Lord Jesus 
was indeed the Christ, the Pharisees were very much 
enraged. They knew very well what a difference 
there was between his religion and theirs ; and if 
the common people believed on Jesus, they would 
certainly give up the Pharisees. Then all their 
power and all their praise would be gone. So, in 
their wickedness and rage, they agreed to kill him. 
How foolish ! just as if religion was a trade, and, if 
you could kill off the other tradesmen, or drive them 
away, then you would be sure to do well and prosper 
in business. They knew better ; they knew that 
the true religion, whichever it was, came down from 
God in heaven, and he would take care of it. But 
they wouldn't thinJc so. They persuaded themselves 
that if they could only slay Jesus, their religion 
would flourish again, whether it was from God or 
not. So they sent officers to take him. 

The officers came and stood in the crowd that 

(111) 



112 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

was listening to our Lord. He knew what they had 
come for, but he went calmly on teaching and 
reasoning, and answering the people's questions. 
Some of the multitude believed on him, and others 
mocked : but all the officers learned to respect and 
admire him, and would not lay hands on him. They 
went back to the Pharisees and chief priests, saying, 
"Never man spake like this man !" 

That was the truth ; the people bore him witness, 
and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded 
out of his mouth. As I told you before, the Lord 
Jesus didn't come into the world for the sake of 
working miracles ; neither did he expect to save us 
by his mighty power. The miracles were to make 
the people listen to his teaching, by showing them 
that he was the Son of God, come down from heaven. 
Now we have heard of his miracles, we must next 
listen to his words. He had three great things to 
teach them : 

1. The first was, that Grod's law can only be 
obeyed with the heart. " God is a Spirit," he says, 
" and they that worship him must worship him in spirit 
and in truth." u Blessed are the poor in spirit," 
the humble in heart, " blessed are they that mourn ; 
blessed are the meek ; blessed are they that do 
hunger and thirst after righteousness ; blessed are 
the merciful; blessed are the pure in heart." His 
blessing and his praise were all for right hearts, not 
for outside obedience. 

Now the Jews thought and acted just the other 



WISE WORDS. 113 

way. According to their notion, it was no matter 
what a man's heart was, so his behaviour was right by 
the rule. They had thousands of little regulations 
about their whole life ; their clothes, their words, 
their prayers, their Sabbaths and feasts and holy 
days ; partly taken out of the Old Testament, and 
partly made up, and that was their religion. Moses 
and the prophets never taught them so. Their 
own evil hearts imagined it, so as to get away from 
repentance and holiness. 

Now to bring them back to repentance, and to 
lead them to holiness, was one part of the Lord's 
great work, and one part of his teaching. " Ye 
have heard that it hath been said by them of old 
time, Thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill 
shall be in danger of the judgment ; But /say unto 
you, that whosoever shall be angry with his brother 
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. 
Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, (to 
make a thank-offering,) and there rememberest that 
thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there 
thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be 
reconciled with thy brother, and then come and 
offer thy gift." As much as to say, " God doesn't 
care for your sacrifices, unless they come from a 
pure, just, and kindly heart." 

" Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, 

to be seen of them." "Doing alms" is giving 

money or food or clothes to the poor. Christ says, 

" Don't make generous gifts for men to praise you, 

10* 



114 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father which 
is in heaven. When thou doest an alms, do not 
sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do, 
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say 
unto you, They have their reward ! But when thou 
doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy 
right hand doeth ; that thine alms may be in secret, 
and thy Father which seeth in secret, himself shall 
reward thee openly. 

" When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the 
hypocrites are ; they love to pray standing in the 
synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that 
they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, 
They have their reward ! (That is, men see them, 
and praise them for being so pious.) But thou, 
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet ; and when 
thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which 
is in secret ; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, 
shall reward thee openly. " If we would pray right, 
we must pray to please God, and not to get praise 
from men. 

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 
Many will say to me, in that day, Lord, Lord, have 
we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name 
cast out devils ? and in thy name done many 
wonderful works ? Then will I profess unto them, 
I never knew you ; depart from me, ye that work 
iniquity !" 



WISE WORDS. 115 

That was why the Pharisees hated the Lord Jesus 
so much ; they were the teachers and leaders of 
this very false doctrine that he contradicted and 
►opposed ; and he had to contend against them all 
the time. He called them "hypocrites," that is, 
pretenders. They made their lives look very devout, 
while their hearts were hard and cruel. "Well 
hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, saying, 
This people honoureth me with their lips, but their 
heart is far from me ; howbeit, in vain do they 
worship me, teaching for doctrines the command- 
ments of men/' This he said, when they found 
fault with him for eating bread without washing his 
hands as much as they did. He went on and said, 
" Hearken to me, every one of you, and understand ; 
There is nothing from without a man, that entering 
into him, can defile him ; but the things which come 
out from him, these are they that defile the man. 
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed 
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, 
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an 
evil eye (envy), blasphemy, pride, foolishness ; all 
these evil things come from within, and defile the 
man." 

" Do not ye after the works of the Pharisees ; all 
their works they do, for to be seen of men. Woe 
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make 
long prayers ; therefore ye shall receive the greater 
damnation ! Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 



116 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and 
cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of 
the law, judgment, mercy, and faith ; that ought 
ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone,, 
Ye blind guides, which strain out a gnat, and 
swallow a camel ! Woe unto you, scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites ! for you make clean the outside 
of the cup and of the platter, but within they are 
full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee ! 
cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, 
that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe 
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear 
beautiful without, but are within full of dead men's 
bones and all uncleanness ! Even so ye also out- 
wardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." So terribly 
did our Lord rebuke those who pretended to obey 
God, but kept back their hearts ! 

But this wasn't all ; those that would serve God 
must serve him with all their heart. " No man can 
serve two masters ; for either he will hate the one 
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one 
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve Gf-od and 
mammon." The very way he called his Apostles 
showed that. They had to forsake all, and follow 
him. " Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have 
nests ; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay 
his head ;" as much as to say, " If you would be my 
disciples, you must be ready for want and hardship, 



WISE WORDS. 117 

worse than the birds or the foxes feel." To the 
young ruler he said, " One thing thou lackest; go, 
sell all that thoit hast and give to the poor ; and 
thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come, 
follow me." Another time, he said, "Fear not 
them which kill the body, and after that have no more 
that they can do ; rather fear him, which is able to 
destroy both soul and body in hell ; yea, I say unto 
you, fear him ! He that loveth father or mother 
more than me, is not worthy of me ; and he that 
loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy 
of me. And he that taketh not his cross and 
folio weth after me, is not worthy of me." He bade 
one man follow him, who answered, "Lord, suffer 
me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto 
him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and 
preach the kingdom of God." Rather leave your 
dead father unburied, than neglect God's work, 
or disobey his command. "No man, having put 
his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for 
the kingdom of God." 

Once Peter asked him, and said, " Behold, we 
have forsaken all and followed thee ; what shall we 
have therefore ? And Jesus said unto them, Ye 
which have followed me in the regeneration, when 
the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, 
ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath 
forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, 
or mother, or children, or wife, or lands, for my 



118 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold and shall 
inherit eternal life.' ' " Blessed are ye, when men 
shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all 
manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. 
Rejoice and be exceeding glad ; for great is your 
reward in heaven. Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God and his righteousness, and all these things shall 
be added unto you." 

And when they asked him, " Which is the first and 
great commandment ?" he answered, "Hear, Israel, 
The Lord our God is one Lord ; and thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all 
thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength. This is the first and great command- 
ment." 

But one thing is very certain : if we are to serve 
the Lord with all the heart, it must be with a new 
heart ; for the old heart will never do it. So our 
Lord said. When the Jews hated him and tried to 
kill him, he told them, u If ye were Abraham's 
children, ye would do the works of Abraham ; if 
God were your Father, ye would love me. He that 
is of God, heareth God's words ; yet herefore hear 
them not, because ye are not of God. Ye are of 
your father the devil, and the lusts of your father 
ye will do." 

And when Nicodemus came to him by night, he 
spoke out still more plainly. " Verily, verily I say 
unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus didn't 



WISE WORDS. 119 

understand that; but the Lord wanted him to hear 
and believe it first, and study it out afterwards. So 
he said again, " Verily, verily I say unto thee, 
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, 
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That 
which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which 
is born of the Spirit, is spirit." Out of our wicked 
race nothing can be born but wicked hearts ; but 
God's Spirit can give us a new heart. 

Now you see what a terrible state we are in. 
God n^ade us to serve him ; and his holy law shuts 
us in on every side. But we can't serve or please 
him with these wicked hearts ; he is too holy for 
that. And he will not let us forget and disobey 
him, and never notice us ; he is too just for that. 
And we can't change these vile and wicked hearts : 
for our hearts are ourselves. " Which of you, by tak- 
ing thought, can add one cubit to his stature ? Thou 
canst not make one hair white or black !" And if 
we can't do that, how shall we change our very 
heart's blood, and make ourselves new creatures? 

You see now, that serving God and being saved 
are very different things from the notions that the 
scribes and Pharisees had. God is not pleased, nor 
our peace made with him, by standing in the streets 
praying, or by giving away money, or keeping fast 
days for men to see us and praise us. Obedience 
is better than sacrifice ; but we are disobedient ; we 
have not the love of God in us. We are condemned 
already ! How shall we be saved ? 



120 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

2. The Jews, having such low and foolish 
thoughts about religion, saw no other use for a 
Saviour than to be a great king and general, and 
fight their battles for them. But the Lord Jesus 
came and showed them that he was to be a Saviour 
first, and a king afterwards ; a Saviour of sinners, 
and A King or saints. That was the second great 
thing he was to teach us. 

"Iamcome," saith he, " to seek and to save 
that which was lost. I am the door of the sheep ; 
by me if any man enter in, he shall be sav^jj, and 
shall go in and out, and find pasture. I am the 
good shepherd ; and other sheep I have, which are 
not of this fold (not of the Jews) ; them also I must 
bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and there 
shall be one fold and one shepherd. My sheep 
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow 
me. And I give unto them eternal life ; and they 
shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out 
of my hand. My Father who gave them to me, is 
greater than all ; and none is able to pluck them 
out of my Father's hand. I and my father are one. 
I am the way, and the truth, and the life ; no man 
cometh unto the Father, but by me." 

" Whosoever shall drink of this (earthly) water 
shall thirst again ; but whosoever drinketh of the 
water that I shall give him, shall never thirst ; 
but the water that I shall give him shall be in 
him a well of water, springing up into everlasting 
life. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, 



WISE WORDS. 121 

but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting 
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. I 
am the bread of life ! he that cometh unto me shall 
never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never 
thirst. All that the Father giveth unto me shall 
come to me ; and him that cometh unto me I will in 
no wise cast out. And this is the will of Him who 
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and 
believeth on him, may have everlasting life ; and I 
will raise him up at the last day." 

" God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent 
not his Son into the world to condemn the world, 
but that the world through him might be saved. He 
that believeth on him is not condemned ; but he that 
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath 
not believed on the only begotten Son of God. I am 
the resurrection and the life : he that believeth on 
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and he 
that liveth and believeth in me, shall never die." 

Then he showed them his dignity and greatness, 
and that he was worthy to be their Saviour. He 
told his disciple, Nathanael, " Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, hereafter ye shall see the angels of God 
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." 
To Nicodemus, that came to him by night, he said, 
" And no man hath ascended up to heaven (to bring 
down the Gospel), but he that came down from 
heaven, even the Son of Man who is in heaven." 
11 



122 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

He warned the Jews, " I came down from heaven, 
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him who 
sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath 
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should 
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 
Verily, verily I say unto you, The Son can do noth- 
ing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do ; for 
tvhat things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son 
likewise. As the Father raiseth up the dead and 
quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom 
he will. The Father judgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son ; that all men 
should honour the Son, even as they honour the 
Father/ ' He called himself the Son of God, the 
Christ, the Saviour that was to come into the world. 
He showed them, too, what strong reasons they 
had to believe that he was the Saviour. " Ye sent 
unto John, and he bore witness unto the truth. But 
I receive not testimony from man, I have greater 
witness than John ; for the works which the Father 
gave me to finish, the same works that I do, bear 
witness of me. And the Father himself which sent 
me hath borne witness of me ; ye have neither heard 
his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. (But) 
Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have 
eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. 
Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, 
for he wrote of me. What and if ye shall see the 
Son of Man ascend up where he was before ? Say 
ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, Thou 



WISE WORDS. 123 

blasphemest, because I said I am the Son of God ? 
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 
But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the 
works ; that ye may know and believe that the 
Father is in me, and I in him. ,, 

When the Jews delivered our Lord up to the 
Romans, to be condemned and crucified, Pilate 
asked him, " Art thou king of the Jews?" Jesus 
answered, " My kingdom is not of this world ; if 
my kingdom were of this world, then would my 
servants fight ; but now is my kingdom not from 
hence." And when the high priest said, "I adjure 
thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether 
thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus answered, 
Thou hast said ; nevertheless, I say unto you, here- 
after shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the 
right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of 
heaven." 

And so he taught his disciples, " Seek not ye 
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be 
ye of doubtful mind. But rather seek ye the king- 
dom of God, and all these things shall be added 
unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your 
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 
Sell that ye have, and give alms ; provide yourselves 
bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens 
that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither 
moth corrupteth. The Son of Man shall send 
forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his 
kingdom all things that do offend, and them which 



124 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

do iniquity ; then shall the righteous shine forth as 
the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. Father, 
I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be 
with me where I am ; that they may behold my 
glory which thou hast given me." And to the 
dying thief, he promised, " To-day shalt thou be 
with me in Paradise.' ' 

So we see our Lord's purpose is to take sinners 
and save them — make them saints, and then reign 
over them. He doesn't stand afar off and throw 
us a blessing ; he takes us into his own care, loves 
us, leads us, and rules over us. 

Thus we have found out two of the great lessons 
the Lord Jesus came to teach us ; that we are lost, 
and that he is ready and able to be our Saviour. 
The other lesson, the greatest of all, the one we 
have been looking for all this time, how he will save 
us; must be left once more. But remember one 
thing ; if the Lord hadn't explained anything, we 
ought to believe what he declares. Look up, 
fainting soul, and live ! That's the command, and 
that's the hope of the gospel. Oh that you all 
would take him at his word; take him for your 
Saviour ; and learn by sweet experience how Jesus 
forgives ! 



blessings of christ^ advent. 125 

Blessings of Christ's Advent. 

Raise your triumphant songs 

To an immortal tune, 
Let the wide earth resound the deeds 

Celestial grace has done. 

Sing how eternal Love 

Its chief Beloved chose, 
And bade him raise our wretched race 

From their abyss of woes. 

His hand no thunder bears, 

Nor terror clothes his brow ; 
No bolts to drive our guilty souls 

To fiercer flames below. 

'Twas mercy filled the throne, 

And wrath stood silent by, 
When Christ was sent with pardons down 

To rebels doomed to die. 

Now, sinners, dry your tears, 

Let hopeless sorrows cease ; 
Bow to the sceptre of his love, 

And take the offered peace. 

Lord, we obey thy call ; 

We lay an humble claim 
To the salvation thou hast brought, 

And love and praise thy name. 
11* 



126 PLANTATION SERMONS. 



Constancy of Christ's Love. 

Hark, my soul, it is the Lord ; 
'Tis thy Saviour, hear his word ; 
Jesus speaks, and speaks to thee : 
" Say, poor sinner, lovest thou me ? 

" I delivered thee when bound, 
And, when wounded, healed thy wound ; 
Sought thee wandering, set thee right, 
Turned thy darkness into light. 

" Can a woman's tender care 
Cease toward the child she bare ? 
Yes, she may forgetful be, 
Yet will I remember thee. 

" Mine is an unchanging love, 
Higher than the heights above ; 
Deeper than the depths beneath, 
Free and faithful, strong as death. 

" Thou shalt see my glory soon, 
When the work of grace is done ; 
Partner of my throne shalt be ; 
Say, poor sinner, lovest thou me?" 

Lord, it is my chief complaint, 
That my love is weak and faint ; 
Yet I love thee and adore, 
Oh for grace to love thee more ! 



SERMON VIII. 

WISE WORDS. 

" Then Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom 
shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life." John 
vi, 68. 

When the Lord Jesus declared to the Jews that 
he was the bread of life, come down from heaven to 
make them live for ever ; and showed them in that 
way that he didn't come to make them a great 
nation again, and conquer this world for them, they 
were very much disappointed. " From that time 
many of his disciples went back, and walked no 
more with him." They were willing to follow him 
to war and danger and death, if he would promise 
them earthly blessings, that death would surely 
takeaway; but when he offered them the victory 
over death, and to deliver them from hell, they 
were disgusted and angry with him ! Mercies for 
a day they would gladly buy at any cost ; but mercies 
for eternity they despised ! 

That was very foolish, but it wasn't strange at 
all. That was what Adam and Eve did in the 
Garden of Eden, threw away God's everlasting 

(127) 



128 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

mercies for an earthly advantage. That's what 
every impenitent sinner is doing, when he hardens 
his heart against the gospel. He is throwing away 
eternity for the sinful pleasures of a day. How 
wonderful is our wickedness and madness * 

Why do we waste on trifling cares 

That life which God's compassion spares ? 

While, in the various range of thought, 
The one thing needful is forgot ! 

The Lord turns from these blind, hardened, ruined 
Jews to his twelve Apostles ; and says, " Will ye also 
go away ?" Then Peter answered, as you heard 
just now, " Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast 
the words of eternal life." That is, " We want to 
live for ever ; we w#uld like a kingdom and a glory 
on earth, too ; but the greatest thing of all is heaven ! 
How can we go to anybody else, when only thou 
canst show us the way of everlasting life?" So 
Peter, with all his rashness, and all his sins, chose 
"that good part which could never be taken away 
from him." 

And what he said that day was true ; the Lord 
Jesus has the words of eternal life. He can lead us 
to the fountains of salvation. He can make our 
heart burn within us, while he opens the Scriptures 
to our understanding. From his wise \^ords we 
can learn how sinners are saved, and saints rejoice 
in glory ; how he redeems, and judges, and reigns, 
as the Son of God. 

III. If we listen now, the Lord Jesus himself will 



WISE WORDS. 129 

answer the question we have been asking all this 
time ; how sin can be pardoned, and sinners saved. 
He will partly answer it, so we shall know what to 
hope for and what to do. But if we are his true 
followers, we shall be finding out more and more of 
the answer, for ever, and for ever. And in truth, 
the other parts of the New Testament can teach us 
a great many things about salvation that the Lord 
Jesus didn't make plain. He said to his Apostles 
once, " I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot 
bear them now;" and the Holy Spirit came afterwards 
and guided them into those truths. Yet the Lord 
will answer that great question for us to-day. 

First, he tells us what he must do for us, that we 
might be saved; he must die for us. 

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted 
up; that whosoever believeth on him should not 
perish, but have eternal life. Now shall the prince 
of this world be cast out ! And I, if I be lifted up, 
will draw all men unto me." The Apostle John 
says that Jesus said this, about being lifted up, to 
signify by what death he should die. " I am the good 
shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for the 
sheep. As the Father knoweth me, even so know 
I the Father ; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay 
down my life, that I might take it again. No man 
taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I 
have power to lay it down, and I have power to 



130 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

take it again. Yet a little while, and the world 
seeth me no more ; but because I live, ye shall live 
also. Greater love hath no man than this — that a 
man lay down his life for his friends ; ye are my 
friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. I came 
forth from the Father, and am come into the world ; 
again, I leave the world and go unto the Father.' ' 
" Let these sayings sink down in your ears ; for 
the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands 
of men." He showed his disciples, again and again, 
how that " he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer 
many things of the elders, and chief priests, and 
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third 
day. Behold we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son 
of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and 
unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to 
death, and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles, to 
mock and to scourge, and to crucify him ; and the 
third day he shall rise again. The Son of Man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
to give his life a ransom for many." 

You see how often, when he speaks of dying, he 
speaks also of rising from the dead. That was 
another great thing. Paul says, " He was delivered 
for our offences, and raised again for our justifica- 
tion :" and that he was declared to be the Son of 
God with power, by the resurrection from the dead. 
So the Lord Jesus himself said, as you heard it just 
now, " I have power to lay down my life, and I 
have power to take it again." And in another 



WISE WORDS. 131 

place, " An evil and adulterous generation seeketh 
after a sign, and there shall no sign be given it, but 
the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was 
three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so 
shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights 
in the heart of the earth.' ' After the transfigura- 
tion on the Mount, he charged Peter and James and 
John " that they should tell no man what things they 
had seen until the Son of Man was risen from the 
dead." "Destroy this temple," he said to the 
Jews, speaking of his body, " and I will raise it 
again in three days." "All ye (my disciples) shall 
be offended because of me this night ; for it is 
written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of 
the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am 
risen again, I will go before you into Galilee." 

He also told them, but not so plainly, that he 
would ascend to heaven bodily, and so show them 
that he came down from heaven. " What, and if 
ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he 
was before ? Yet a little while am I with you, 
and then I go unto Him that hath sent me. Ye 
shall seek me, and shall not find me ; and where I 
am, thither ye cannot come." That was to the 
wicked, unbelieving Jews ; but to Simon Peter he 
said, "Whither I go thou canst not follow me now ; 
but thou shalt follow me afterward. I go (to my 
Father) to prepare a place for you. And if I go 
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and 
receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye 



132 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

may be also. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice 
because I said, I go unto the Father. I came forth 
from the Father, and am come into the world; 
again, I leave the world and go to the Father.' ■ 

Again, the Lord Jesus tells us what we must do, 
that he may save us. He begins by warning us to 
listen diligently. " He that hath ears to hear, let 
him hear. The words that I speak unto you, they 
are spirit, and they are life. The word which ye 
hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." 
And he goes on to show us that we must not only 
hear, but heed, and believe, and obey. " Why call 
ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I 
say ? Whosoever cometh unto me, and heareth my 
sayings and doeth them, I will show you to whom 
he is like. He is like a man which built a house, 
and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock ; 
and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehement- 
ly upon that house, and could not shake it, for it 
was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and 
doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation 
built a house upon the earth, against which the 
stream did beat vehemently ; and immediately it 
fell, and the ruin of that house was great. Ye are 
my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. If 
ye love me, keep my commandments. If thou wilt 
enter into life, keep the commandments.' ' 

But what are these commandments, on which 
everything depends ? It isn't only the great law 
of God ; because that's our ruin, that we've broken 



WISE WORDS. 133 

that law, and wandered clear away from it into 
God's wrath. The commandments of the Lord 
Jesus are to save us from the woe and eternal death 
that comes on sinners for breaking God's law. 
There are two great things, without which we can't 
get one step nearer to heaven ; and then there are 
some other things that go with them. To-day we 
must learn what they are ; when we come to the 
Parables, we will see how the Lord Jesus explained 
them. 

The first great thing is, Repentance. " Repent ! 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" that was 
what Christ and his Apostles preached from the 
very first. u Blessed are the poor in spirit, and 
they that mourn, and that hunger and thirst after 
righteousness. They shall rejoice and be filled, and 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Suppose ye that 
these Galileans (that Pilate killed) were sinners 
above all the Galileans, because they suffered such 
things ? I tell you nay ; but except ye repent ye 
shall all likewise perish. He upbraided the cities, 
wherein most of his mighty works had been done, 
because they repented not. I am not come to call 
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I say 
unto you, There is joy in the presence of the angels 
of God over one sinner that repenteth." 

The other great thing is, believing on him. 

" The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is 

at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel. This is 

the work of God, that ye believe on him whom He 

12 



134 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

hath sent. God so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
him should not perish, but should have everlasting 
life. He that believeth on him is not condemned ; 
but he that believeth not is condemned already. 
This is the will of Him that sent me, that every one 
which seeth the Son and believeth on him, may 
have everlasting life ; and I will raise him up at the 
last day. If ye believe not that I am he (that is, 
Christ the Saviour of the world), ye shall die in your 
sins. ,, When the blind man was cast out of the 
synagogue, because he wouldn't call the Lord Jesus, 
that healed him, a sinner, Jesus found him, and said, 
"Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" He 
answered, " Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on 
him ?" Jesus replied, " Thou hast both seen him, 
and it is he that talketh with thee." And he said, 
"Lord, I believe!" and he worshipped him. To 
Martha he said, as you have heard already : "He that 
believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live; and he that liveth and believeth on me 
shall never die." 

Sometimes our Lord calls this great thing by 
other names. " Come unto me, all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly of heart ; and ye shall find rest 
unto your souls. All that my Father giveth me 
shall come to me ; and him that cometh unto me I 
will in no wise cast out. Verily I say unto you, 



WISE WORDS. 135 

Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of Gfod as 
a little child, shall in no wise enter therein. Yet 
lackest thou one thing ; sell all that thou hast, and 
distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure 
in heaven ; and come, follow me. Other sheep I 
have ; them also I must bring, and they shall hear 
my voice. My sheep hear my voice, and I know 
them, and they follow me ; and I give unto them 
eternal life, and they shall never perish.' ' 

These are the two great things, repenting and 
believing. But he that does them will do other 
things too. " If any man will come after me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not 
worthy of me ; and he that loveth son or daughter more 
than me is not worthy of me ; and he that taketh not 
hi£ cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. 
Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I con- 
fess also before my Father which is in heaven. But 
whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I 
also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 
Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and 
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall 
humble himself as this little child, the same is the 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso 
shall receive one such little child in my name, re- 
ceiveth me. If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, 
(i, e. cause thee to sin,) cut them off and cast them 
from thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life 



136 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

maimed, than having two hands or two feet to be 
cast into hell fire. And if thine eye cause thee to 
sin, pluck it out and cast it from thee ; it is better 
for thee to enter into life with one eye, than having 
two eyes to be cast into hell fire." 

" Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye 
shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 
What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe 
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And 
when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have anything 
against any one ; that your Father which is in 
heaven may forgive your trespasses. Take heed to 
yourselves ! if thy brother trespass against thee, 
rebuke him ; and if he repent, forgive him. And if 
he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and 
seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I 
repent ; thou shalt forgive him." 

" Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch 
cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much 
fruit. This is my commandment, that ye love one 
another, as I have loved you." 

And what will he do for us? What is this " salva- 
tion" and " eternal life ?" His dying, and rising 
again, and ascending to heaven ; what will they do 
for us ? 

First of all, the Holy Spirit shall change our hard 
and wicked hearts. " If ye, then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much 



WISE WORDS. 137 

more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
Spirit to them that ask him ? No man can come 
unto me, except the Father which hath sent me 
draw him. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except 
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born 
of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the 
Spirit is spirit. When the Comforter is come, he 
will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, 
and of judgment. He will guide you into all 
truth.' ' 

Again : the Lord will cause his Father to love 
us, as he loves us. God did love us before with a 
pitying love, and gave his own Son for us, as you 
have heard already ; but now he is to love us as his 
dear children. "He that hath my commandments 
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he 
that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. If a 
man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him and make 
our abode with him. I say not unto you that I will 
pray the Father for you, for the Father himself 
loveth you, because ye have loved me." 

Again : our sins shall be forgiven. Jesus came, 
preaching repentance for the remission (that is, the 
forgiveness) of sins. He said to the sick of the palsy, 
"Arise, take up thy bed and walk !" that the Jews 
might "know the Son of man hath power on earth 
to forgive sins. 1 ' " Verily I say unto you, All sins 
shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blas- 
12* 



138 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

phemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme;" 
except the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. And 
when he celebrated the Lord's supper, he said, 
u This cup is the New Testament in my blood, shed 
for many for the remission of sins." 

He gives them peace and joy, as well as good- 
ness. u These things have I said unto you, that 
my joy might remain in you, and that your 
joy might be full. Peace I leave with you ; my 
peace I give unto you ; not as the world giveth, give 
I unto you. These things have I spoken unto you, 
that ye might have peace. In this world, ye shall 
have tribulation; but be of good cheer — I have 
overcome the world." 

But the chief blessing is that " everlasting life," 
of which you have heard so often, and which is in 
heaven, reserved for us, and not in this poor world. 
But before we come to that, we must first hear what 
our Lord says about the judgment. After death 
comes judgment, and then woe for the sinner and 
joy for the believer. 

" As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he 
given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath 
given him authority to execute judgment also, be- 
cause he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this ; 
for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the 
graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; 
they that have done good unto the resurrection of 
life ; and they that have done evil unto the resur- 
rection of damnation. What is a man profited if 



WISE WORDS. 139 

he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? 
For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his 
Father, with his angels ; and then shall he reward 
every man according to his works." 

" When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, 
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
on the throne of his glory ; and before him shall be 
gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them, 
as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats ; 
and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but 
the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto 
them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, 
and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; 
naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye visited 
me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Verily 
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of 
the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me. 
Then shall he say unto them on his left hand, De- 
part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for 
the devil and his angels ! And these shall go away 
into everlasting punishment ; but the righteous into 
life eternal/ ' 

" Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun 
in the kingdom of their Father. If any man serve 
me, let him follow me ; and where I am, there shall 
also my servant be ; if any man serve me, him will 



140 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

my Father honour. They which are accounted 
"worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection 
from the dead, neither marry nor are given in 
marriage, neither can they die any more ; for they 
are equal unto the angels ; and are the children of 
God, being the children of the resurrection.' ' 

" Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer 
darkness ! there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth. At the end of the world the angels shall 
come forth and sever the wicked from among the 
just. They shall gather out of his kingdom all 
things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 
and shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; there 
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. It is better 
for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two 
hands to go into hell, into the fire that shall never 
be quenched ; where their worm dieth not, and the 
fire is not quenched.' ' 

And now we see how it is that the Lord Jesus 
Christ is to save us. He suffered in our stead, 
laying down his life for us. He has power, now, 
to forgive our sins if we believe on him. More than 
that — he has power to send God's Holy Spirit and 
change our hearts, and so make us believe on him. 
He will give us new, living, loving, trusting hearts. 
He will cause us to serve him here below ; and then 
he will take us to reign with him in glory. Oh that 
men would praise the Lord for his goodness; for 
his wonderful works to the children of men ! This 
is the reason why John the Baptist called him the 



CHRIST THE WAY. 141 

Lamb of God ; he was our sacrifice. Oh that his 
love might constrain us to love him ! for if one died 
for all, then were all dead ; and he died for all, 
that they who live might hot live unto themselves, but 
unto him who died for them, and rose again. Look 
unto him, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth ! 



Christ the Way. 

Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone, 
He, whom I fix my hopes upon ; 
His track I see, and I'll pursue 
The narrow way, till him I view. 

The way the holy prophets went, 
The road that leads from banishment, 
The King's highway of holiness 
I'll go, for all his paths are peace. 

This is the way I long have sought, 
And mourned because I found it not ; 
My grief and burden long have been, 
Because I could not cease from sin. 

The more I strove against its power, 
I sinned and stumbled but the more, 
Till late I heard my Saviour say, 
" Come hither, soul, I am the way." 

Lo ! glad I come, and thou, blest Lamb, 
Shalt take me to thee as I am : 
Nothing but sin I thee can give, 
Nothing but love shall I receive. 



142 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Then will I tell to sinners round, 
What a dear Saviour I have found; 
I'll point to thy redeeming blood, 
And say — "Behold the way to God !" 



Christ the Friend of Sinners 

One there is, above all others 

Well deserves the name of Friend ; 

His is love beyond a brother's, 
Costly, free, and knows no end. 

Which of all our friends, to save us, 
Could or would have shed his blood ? 

But this Saviour died to have us 
Reconciled in him to God. 

When he lived on earth abased, 
Friend of sinners was his name ; 

Now above all glory raised, 
He rejoices in the same. 

! for grace our hearts to soften ; 

Teach us, Lord, at length to love ; 
We, alas ! forget too often, 

What a Friend we have above. 



SERMON IX. 

PARABLES — THE SOWER. 

" All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in 
parables ; and without a parable spake he not unto them." 
Matt. xiii. 34. 

God, that built the world, made it full of noble 
lessons about himself and his will. As Paul says, 
" The invisible things of God, even his eternal 
power and Godhead, are clearly seen from the crea- 
tion of the world, being understood by the things 
that are made." Some of these lessons he makes 
very plain : every tree and flower, every rock and 
all the stars, show us what a wise and mighty God 
made them. "The heavens declare the glory of 
God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." 
So David calls any man that says, There is no God, 
a fool. 

I say, then, God has made some of his lessons 
very plain : then again, he has hid some of them, 
so that we have to study hard to find them out, or 
else he must teach us by his word, how to under- 
stand his works. Job says, " Canst thou by search- 
ing find out God unto perfection ?" That shows 

(143) 



144 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

you that by searching we can find out some things ■ 
about God, but not all ; he is too vast for that. If 
we are so happy as to get to heaven, we shall always 
be finding him out, more and more ; but in all eter- 
nity we'll never reach the end of that lesson ! " It 
is as high as heaven — what canst thou do ? Deep- 
er than hell — what canst thou know?" 

Now the Lord Jesus loved to draw out these les- 
sons, and teach his people what God had hid in the 
world. When he wanted to teach them not to be 
too anxious about earthly things, this was the way 
he did it: — " Take no thought for your life, what 
ye shall eat or what ye shall drink. Behold the 
fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they 
reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly 
Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
they ? And why take ye thought for raiment ? 
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they 
toil not, neither do they spin ; and yet I say unto 
you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like 
one of these.' ' And when he warned them to look 
out for themselves, and see what danger they were 
in from the judgments of God, he put them in mind 
how they studied the signs of the weather, and showed 
them that they ought to look for higher signs than 
those. " When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, 
straightway ye say, There cometh a shower ; and 
so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, 
ye say, There will be heat ; and it cometh to pass. 
Ye hypocrites ! ye can discern the face of the sky 



PARABLES— THE SOWER. 145 

and of the earth ; but how is it that ye do not dis- 
cern this time ? Yea, and why even of yourselves 
judge ye not what is right?" 

But especially our Lord loved to teach these les- 
sons by Parables — by telling some story that might 
happen any day, or bringing up some common matter 
that everybody knew, and teaching religion with it. 
He made them so plain that little children can un- 
derstand them; so full of wisdom that learned men 
study them over and over again, and write great books 
about them ; and so beautiful that everybody loves 
them. The hardened sinner is warned by the para- 
ble of the Tares in the Field. The heedless sinner 
is taught by the parable of the Good Seed. The 
trembling sinner is encouraged and brought near 
by the parable of the Prodigal Son. The young 
Christian, feeling how weak he is, so far from good- 
ness and from strength, begins to hope again when 
he reads the parable of the Seed sown and how it 
grows. Every line of them is full of love and wis- 
dom and blessing. 

Let us begin with the parable of the Sower. 

A certain man went out into his field to sow seed. 
In those countries, fields have no fences round them, 
and the paths run right through them. And as he 
scattered the seed out of his hand, some of it fell 
on the hard and trodden path, instead of the soft 
ploughed ground, where it could sink in, or be 
covered up. And the birds came and devoured it. 

Some of it fell on rocky ground — where a little 
13 



146 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

earth covered the solid rock. There it sprang up 
quickly, and looked green and promised well. But 
soon the hot summer days came on, and the sun 
shone clear and fierce, and it withered away. The 
roots could not get deep, cool soil to hide in, because 
of the rock, and the bright and tender plants died. 

Some seed fell where the roots of thorny plants 
were hid in the ground, waiting for spring. The 
thorns came up first, and grew fast and strong ; and 
when the seed did sprout, the thorns choked it. The 
plants pined, and dwindled away, and, brought no 
fruit to perfection. 

But the rest fell on good, mellow, fruitful soil ; 
and it brought forth fruit — some of it thirty times 
as much as was sowed, and some sixty times, and 
some even a hundred times. " He that hath ears to 
hear, let him hear" this parable ! 

Then the Lord Jesus went on and explained it to 
them. He said it was to show them how different 
people hear God's word. The Lord himself was 
busy, all the time from his baptism to his cross, 
sowing the good seed — that is, carrying God's mes- 
sages to the people. He went through all Galilee 
and Judea, preaching, " Repent ! for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand." He sent out Ms messen- 
gers, too ; first twelve of them, and afterwards 
seventy, on the same errand — made them work 
miracles, heal the sick, cast out devils, and teach 
men. When he rose from the dead and ascended 
to heaven, he sent down the Holy Spirit to make 



PARABLES — THE SOWER. 147 

the apostles speak God's word, and nothing else, in 
their preaching ; and then to make them write the 
rest of the Bible without any mistake — without 
leaving out his words or putting in their own. Then 
he appointed preachers, to preach the gospel — took 
Sunday away from the world, and made it a holy 
day — the day to sow God's good seed in. And he 
promised to help us, and bless the seed, and make it 
spring up, if his servants scatter it as he bids them. 

Now think what a noble thing the gospel must 
be, that God and our Saviour should take such care 
of it. There is Jehovah to give it, Jesus Christ 
to preach it, the Holy Spirit to bless it ; and all 
heaven to shout Glory and Hallelujah, when the 
harvest comes ! And it is a noble thing, worthy of 
all this honour and blessing. It is the story of 
God's loving the world, and giving his own Son to 
die for it, and so saving sinners from the worm that 
never dies, and the fire that never shall be quenched, 
to make them " saints in light." And how do men 
receive this good seed ? 

Some are wayside hearers. Their hearts are a 
public road, for all sorts of worldly thoughts and 
passions to travel up and down and beat the ground 
hard. They are what we call thoughtless people. 
It isn't that their hearts are any harder or worse 
than other people's, at first ; but they won't think or 
care about anything great or good. They are satis- 
fied with such pleasures and such notions as come 
to us without our trying for them. They leave the 



148 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

gates open for anything to run in, good or bad, 
just as it happens ; and soon, all their best and 
tender "feelings get covered under the hard road- 
track. 

Now, let the preacher come to such a man, and 
talk as kindly and solemnly as man can talk. The 
tears are in his eyes ; his faithful heart aches, be- 
cause he sees the ruin the poor sinner is coming to ; 
he tells him of death and judgment, an angry God, 
and an awful eternity. And while he talks, the 
sinner listens, the good seed falls on the ground ; 
but as he turns away, some wretched little trifle — 
the rabbit that runs across the road, or the walking- 
stick that he cuts out of the •bushes, or the idle 
word of somebody that he meets ; some such trifle, 
I say, catches it out of his mind, and that's the 
last of it ! Not really the last of it, as you know 
very well — only the last chance to be saved by that 
warning. He will hear it all over again, one of 
these days ; but it will be from the lips of God the 
Judge, and not from man ! 

Some, again, are rocky-ground hearers ; they are 
exactly the opposite sort. The wayside hearer's 
heart may be good soil underneath, but it is beaten 
hard by thoughtlessness, on the outside. But the 
rocky-ground hearer has a little good-looking soil on 
the outside, and within it is hard as stone. They 
are fair-weather people. They are well disposed to 
everything good, at first ; they like religion, and 
good Christian people — praise the preacher— sing and 



PARABLES — THE SOWER. 149 

pray, and profess as loud as anybody. They're al- 
ways ready for the good seed, if it only could take 
root and grow. But it can't. It is only the out- 
side of their hearts that is tender, or that receives 
the good seed ; everything below that is proud and 
hard and careless. Sometimes they are kind, affec- 
tionate people ; when they see the preacher or the 
Christian friend distressed, it troubles them. If you 
weep, they'll weep too. If you look solemn, their 
faces grow grave and solemn too. But notice — it 
isn't a very deep or bitter trouble ; there is even some- 
thing pleasant mixed with the pain. Such people 
like to go to funerals and to big meetings. They 
like excitement — like to weep, and shout, and sing 
loudly. But under all that is a cold, dead, faithless 
heart. 

Sometimes they are good-natured, amiable people. 
They see that their friends are anxious to make 
Christians of them, and they would like to please 
them. If you ask them to go to church, or to pray, 
or to give up their sins, they agree to it righfc off, 
to oblige you. It isn't God they care about, but 
man. 

Then there are people who seem to have anatural 
liking for religious things. Some of them are 
timid and fearful, and some of them are serious and 
thoughtful. The timid ones are afraid of death, 
and they think about religion as something that 
will make death more safe and easy. So, whenever 
their fears arise; when they're sick, or when they come 
13* 



150 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

out of any danger — even when a heavy thunder 
storm begins to boom and flash over their heads — 
they grow religious in a moment. A little soil on 
the top of their hearts grows soft just then, but the 
rock is all the same ! The serious people are those 
that get weary of the silly babble of the world — 
weary of the foolish laughter and poor blind selfish- 
ness that makes up so much of men's talk. It is a 
comfort to them, after all the jangle and folly that 
they hear, to meet people whose heart is on higher 
things; and often they enjoy it so much, that they 
seem just as religious as any Christian could be. 
But it's only the outside of their heart after 
all. 

Now all these different kinds of people look very 
well and very promising, at first, if they would only 
last; but that's the trouble. Nothing less than 
changing the whole heart will make a man firm and 
steady in religion. God must make him a " new crea- 
ture in Christ Jesus ;" but then, you know, he would 
not be a stony ground hearer. As he is now, a little 
persecution or temptation — a little discouragement 
or a scoffing friend — will wither up all his good re- 
solutions, take all the thoughtfulness out of his face 
and out of his heart, and leave it as barren and hope- 
less as ever. 

And how terrible a thing this is — that sinners can 
make believe that they are Christians, and cheat 
themselves ! keep the stony heart in their flesh, 
and flatter themselves that it's fruitful soil ! Oh 



PARABLES— THE SOWER. 151 

how many are ruining their souls just that way 
— looking as if they had God's blessing, but liv- 
ing and dying under God's curse ! They are the 
stony ground hearers. 

But there is still another kind of unfruitful 
hearers ; the Lord likened them to thorny ground. 
The roots of thorns were hid in the ground before 
the good seed was sown, and they were left there, 
instead of being dug out and burned. In the course 
of time, both sprung up, the good plants from the 
seed, and the evil plants from the roots. Of course 
the evil plants had the advantage ; the long root- 
branches filled all the ground, and sucked up all 
the juices and fatness of it, while the tender little 
seed-roots, pushing here and there, would be broken 
or pushed back, and starved. It's the old story of 
trying to be religious with the old heart ; an idle 
and hopeless work ! 

" The heart unchanged can never rise 
To happiness and God." 

That's where our false professors come from; 
most of them. The old sins, that never were killed 
out of the heart, spring up and flourish again when 
their first terror and distress is over. In the winter, 
you know, the thorns die down to the ground, but 
the roots live on. The frost and snow may come, 
and the storms of sleet and bitter cold rain may 
beat, and the wild winds may howl ; but all that 
doesn't hurt what's buried so deep. If you want to 



152 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

kill them out completely, you must tear up the 
earth with the plough, and lay hold of them and 
drag them out and burn them. Then the wheat or 
corn may live and thrive ; but if you don't do that, 
the thorns will " spring up and choke them." 

Now conviction for sin is like winter ; it makes the 
outside sins die off for a while, makes men mend 
their ways and change their bad habits. The pro- 
fane man stops swearing, and the Sabbath-breaker 
goes to church, and the passionate man keeps his 
temper, and the covetous man gives something to 
the poor and something to the gospel. If they did 
not, we wouldn't have any hope for them at all. If 
the briers did not die, the farmer wouldn't even 
sow his seed. So conviction reforms men's lives, 
but it doesn't change their hearts. It takes con- 
version to do that ; and if men are not thoroughly 
converted by God's grace, the thorn-roots will be 
there still ; and when conviction is over, and the 
clouds of winter break up, they will spring out of 
the earth and take possession of the heart. 

In this way many a man comes out quite bright 
at first, and joins the church. But just when you 
expect to see the plants of grace flourishing, they 
begin to dwindle and die. The same old sins, or 
worse ones, are breaking out all over him ; and he 
goes back to his covetousness, or his angry passion, 
or his pride, or his swearing, or drinking again, and 
his last state is worse than the first- I say the 
same sins, or worse ones ; you know, after we clear 



PARABLES — THE SOWER. 153 

a piece of ground, other kinds of bushes and vines 
often grow up, that we never saw there before ; and 
that second growth is tougher, and harder to root 
out, than the first one was. Just so it is often with 
the unconverted man that has been convicted, or 
that has professed religion. The second growth of 
sins is more wicked and hopeless than ever. 

The only hope for any of us is to carry our evil 
hearts to God and give them to him, and earnestly 
pray him, for his mercies' sake, to tear up the whole 
soil and root out our best loved and besetting sins. 
Then, though sins will no doubt spring up again, 
they won't have that great advantage of the old 
roots to grow on; and by God's blessing, the good 
seed may spring up and fill our hearts, and choke 
down all evil plants together. 

That was what the Lord spoke of last — the hearers 
that were like good ground ; ground that is soft 
above and fruitful below, ground from which the 
evil plants have been completely rooted up. On 
such ground the seed may not spring up as quick as 
it does on the thin and stony places, nor spindle up 
as fast as if it grew among thorns ; but it will take 
deep root, and thrive, and bear fruit ; some more 
and some less, but it will all bear fruit. 

And so there are some that, when they hear God's 
word, " receive it into good and honest hearts." 
Not holy hearts yet ; that isn't what the Lord Jesus 
meant to say ; but hearts ready for the seed. They 
are willing to be taught of God. They don't hate 



154 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

his counsels and scoff at his word. They feel a 
great need of instruction. They have found out 
that they are poor, lost, and ruined sinners. They 
know that only God can help them out of their 
trouble, and that he helps us by his word. So they 
come, like Mary, and sit down at Jesus' feet. They 
listen to the gospel, and say as David did, u I will 
hear what God the Lord will speak.' ' 

They are also tender hearts. They remember 
how shamefully they have treated that kind and holy 
Father who is in heaven. They feel that he must 
be angry with them, and they want peace with God. 
They are cut to the heart and cry out, " Men and 
brethren, what must we do to be saved ?" They 
look up to the Saviour's cross, and are ashamed to 
think how often they have taken his name in vain, 
and profaned his Sabbaths, and wasted his grace. 
And when the message of the gospel comes, they 
take good heed to it. It is just the news they want 
to hear. 

They are also " honest" hearts. A gr£at many 
sinners are trying to cheat themselves about religion. 
They don't want to think that their hearts are so 
vile as conscience says they are. They reason and 
reason about it, to make out that the sinner's danger 
is not so dreadful after all. But these good ground 
hearers receive it all. And though our Saviour's 
way of saving us is very humbling, and very hard to 
our wicked and unbelieving hearts, they don't try to 



PARABLES — THE SOWER. 155 

persuade themselves that it is any other way than 
it is. They receive the word into honest hearts. 

Those hearts — those teachable, tender, humble, 
honest hearts are the ones God loves and blesses. 
They learn the terrible lesson of our sin and woe. 
Their contrite hearts are broken with shame and 
sorrow. They "go to Jesus, though their sins high 
as a mountain rise." And while they're weeping, 
like poor Mary Magdalene, at Jesus' feet, and not 
daring to look up into his face, the Lord of glory 
is smiling on them ; he beholds and loves them. 
Presently he says, " Go in peace ! thy sins are for- 
given thee." Oh, wasn't that word worth waiting 
for, praying for, weeping for ? The old war is all 
over. The guilty, dying soul is reconciled to God, 
and made to live. Hope and joy break out, like 
flowers in spring. Sweet praises fill his heart and 
tune his lips — Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace ! 

But Christ says, " They bring forth fruit." All 
our growing and promising would come to nothing 
without that. Those that really " live unto God" 
very soon learn to ask Paul's question — "Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do ?" The heart that 
loves anybody always tries to do something for the 
person it loves. You like to bring something home 
at night for your child, or your wife, or your 
mother. And so, if we truly love God, we will 
want to serve him, please him, honour him. Some 
people are naturally more active than others ; some 



156 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

true Christians are more in earnest than others ; 
and so, some will bring forth more fruit, and others 
less. But the idle and heartless and fruitless are 
weeds, and not wheat. At the last, they will be 
gathered up and burned ; but of the wheat God says, 
" Gather it up into my garner." 

It's a poor business to make loud professions, and 
not stick to them. Such church members will rise 
to " shame and everlasting contempt." But the 
humble soul that strives to do its duty and fill its 
place, God will value above gold and precious stones; 
that soul, however lowly and poor its place on earth 
may be, God will honour. " She hath done what she 
could," says our Lord Jesus ; " wherever my gospel 
is preached in the whole world it shall be told of her, 
that she hath done this." 

Let us now search our hearts, and know what 
kind of " hearers " we are. For God's word never 
returns to him void. The seed he sows shall not be 
wasted. He will require it of us again. And oh how 
dreadful will be the end of those who can show no 
good fruit of all his labour ! God be merciful unto us 
and bless us, and give us good and honest hearts, to 
receive his precious word and live ! 



WATCH. 157 



"Watch." 



A charge to keep I have, 

A God to glorify ; 
A never dying soul to save, 

And fit it for the sky. 

To serve the present age, 

My calling to fulfil, 
Oh, may it all my powers engage 

To do my Master's will ! 

Arm me with jealous care, 

As in thy sight to live ; 
And Oh ! thy servant, Lord, prepare 

A strict account to give. 

Help me to watch and pray, 

And on thyself rely, 
Assured, if I my trust betray, 

I shall for ever die. 



"Oh how love i thy Law!" 

Holy Bible ! book divine ! 
Precious treasure, thou art mine ! 
Mine, to tell me whence I came ; 
Mine, to teach me what I am. 

Mine, to chide me when I rove ; 
Mine, to show a Saviour's love ; 
Mine art thou to guide my feet, 
Mine, to judge, condemn, acquit. 
14 



158 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Mine, to comfort in distress, 
If the Holy Spirit bless ; 
Mine, to show by living faith 
Man can triumph over death. 

Mine, to tell of joys to come, 
And the rebel sinner's doom, 
thou precious book divine, 
Precious treasure, thou art mine ! 



SERMON X*. 

PARABLES — THE PEODIGAL SON. 

" For this my son was dead, and is alive again : he was 
lost, and is found." Luke xv. 24. 

One of the kindest of all God's words to us, is 
" sons." Considering our wickedness, we could 
very well expect him to call us rebels, transgressors, 
or anything else that is wretched and vile. But 
even when he rebukes us for sin, how often he takes 
some tender name to give us ! " Hear, heavens, 
and give ear, earth ! for I have nourished and 
brought up children, and. they have rebelled against 
me!" And again, " If I be a Father, where is mine 
honour?" And again, "Is Ephraim my dear 
son?" And again, u The rich and the poor meet 
together, and the Lord is the Father of them all." 

And among all the beautiful parables of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, there is none that his people take 
more delight in, than the story of the prodigal son. 
In that he tells us both how wicked we are to treat 
God as we do, and how he loves us through all our 
ingratitude and sin. I know very well that the 
parable has another meaning too ; but we are busy 

( 159 ) 



160 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

with the lessons of salvation. We can't turn aside 
to other matters till that is settled ; we can only- 
praise and wonder at the wisdom and goodness that 
can teach us so much in a few and simple words. 

There was a man that had two sons. The 
youngest one could not wait till his father should 
die, or till he was ready to divide his property ; he 
came and said, Father, give me the portion of goods 
that falleth to me. So the kind father shared all 
that he had between his two sons. Now this 
younger son was the prodigal. 

Not many days after, he gathered everything 
together, turned his back on his father and his home, 
and travelled to a far country. There he wouldn't 
see the tears in his mother's eyes, or the sorrow in 
his father's heart ; there, no kind friends would re- 
buke and warn and try to save him. And he wasted 
what his father gave him in wickedness. It was 
because he loved such evil ways that he went away 
from home. 

Then when his property was all gone, there arose 
a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in 
want. When bread was plentiful, he despised and 
wasted it ; now he needs it, but there is none for 
him ! Till at last, the proud and miserable young 
man had to hire himself out to take care of some- 
body's swine ; the lowest business a man could follow 
in that country, a calling that everybody scorned. 
But even that way he couldn't live ; so great was 



PARABLES — THE PRODIGAL SON. 161 

his hunger that he was ready to eat even of the 
swine's food. 

And now at last he began to see how foolish and 
wicked he had been. All his vain and idle thoughts 
left him ; his pride was gone ; he found that 
he was a poor, miserable, helpless creature. He 
remembered his happy home, but he felt that it 
never could be his home again. He had sinned 
away his peace, his property, and his father's love ! 
He remembered the gentle arms that used to be 
round him ; the sweet safety of his childhood ; the 
joy of doing right and being loved for it. But 
alas ! there's no more joy for him ! If they will 
only take him now for a servant instead of a son, 
that's all he can hope for. And oh ! how he'll rejoice 
to be under that blessed roof again, even as a 
servant ! " He came to himself, and said, i How 
many hired servants of my father have bread 
enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! I 
will arise and go to my father, and will say unto 
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called 
thy son ; make me as one of thy hired servants.' ! 

And so he set out, with heavy heart and feeble 
steps, to seek his father's face. He knew not, in 
his humble shame, how his father would treat even 
that small petition. " Perhaps he will be so angry 
with me, he won't even hear me out, won't let me 
confess my sin, but drive me away as I deserve. 
14* ' 



162 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

But I must try him. I'm perishing with hunger, 
and where else can I go ?" 

The Lord Jesus doesn't tell us how the poor 
prodigal got along and obtained food on his journey. 
No doubt he had often to beg for a morsel of bread 
and a cup of water. But that was a small matter 
to him, with the fear and sorrow he had in his heart. 
It wasn't worth mentioning, after that. But at 
last he comes in sight of home. Don't you think 
his heart must have failed him then, more than ever ? 
Oh what thoughts of his young days must have 
rushed on his mind ! how his father used to smile on 
him and his mother to bless him ! what bright hopes 
filled his heart, and now they have all come to this ! 
Then he remembers the day when he broke away 
from that happy shelter ; how his weeping father 
plead with him ; how his gray hairs bent down in 
sorrow, and he mourned aloud over a wicked son. 
" Can he forgive me ? If he curses me and drives 
me away, it will be just what I deserve !" So he 
weeps and trembles. His heart fails him, and he 
stops and turns back ; then he thinks how desperate 
his case is, and he falters on again. 

But while he lingers and trembles, his father sees 
him! " While he was yet a great way off, his 
father saw him, and had compassion on him, and 
ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." Then the 
prodigal son began to say what he had resolved to 
say ; " Father, I have sinned against heaven and in 
thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy 



PARABLES — THE PRODIGAL SON. 163 

son" — Why does he stop ? why doesn't he finish his 
prayer — " make me as one of thy hired servants?" 
Ah, he has ventured at last to lift up his weary, 
longing eyes to his injured father's face. He sees 
the tears of compassion, and he hears the words of 
blessing. " This isn't the way to meet a hired 
servant; I'm a son again ; I'm a son !" 

Then the father said to his servants, " Bring forth 
the best robe and put it on him ; put a ring on his 
hand and shoes on his feet ; and bring hither the fatted 
calf and kill it ; for this my son was dead, and is 
alive again — he was lost, and is found !" 

Now you can see for yourselves what a picture this 
story is of the returning sinner and the forgiving 
God. The sinner is a son, because God made him, 
and rules over him, and loves him. He is a son, 
because all that he has is given to him by God — 
the portion of goods that the Father shares out to 
him. He is a son, because his proper home is in 
heaven, where God lives, and not here. 

But the sinner is a disobedient, wasteful, wicked 
son. What noble possessions God gave him ! A 
mind to think and a heart to feel — health and 
strength — a body so curiously and wonderfully 
made to do everything that we need to do, and to 
bear so much toil and hardship — friends and kindred 
— homes and hopes and joys — time to turn unto 
God — a Bible to teach him religion — a Sabbath to 
learn it and a life to practise it — a church to wor- 
ship in and privileges to enjoy — a crucified Saviour to 



164 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

atone for his sins — a Holy Spirit to restrain and 
turn him — a prayer-hearing God seated on the throne 
of grace ! And what has he done with them 
all? 

Why he has gone as far from God as he could, 
carrying God's gifts along with him. I know we 
can't go from God in fact : " Whither shall I go 
from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy 
presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art 
there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
there ! If I take the wings of the morning and 
dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there 
shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall 
hold me." But the sinner can shut God out of his 
thoughts and out of his love. He can make his 
plans, and spend his days, and waste his powers, 
just as if there never was a God. He can make a 
mock at sin, he can forget God's law, he can ne- 
glect his privileges and break the Sabbath, and 
trifle away the day of grace : and so he wastes his 
substance in riotous living. He makes the world 
his home, and forgets and despises heaven. As I 
said, he gets as far from God as he can. He sins 
away his early tenderness, he burdens his conscience, 
he resists the Spirit. He brings himself to awful 
dangers, and utter helplesness. 

And then, when he has tried all that sin can do 
for him, then comes the '* mighty famine." It is 
just as sure as the rising and setting of the sun, 
that the pleasures and labours of this world will 



PARABLES — THE PRODIGAL SON. 165 

leave the immortal soul hungry and thirsty. God 
has made our hearts to enjoy heaven and Himself for 
ever ; and do you think anything earthly can satisfy 
us ? You might as well try to fill the great bed of 
the ocean with a cupfull of water ! You have all tried 
it — all have had comforts and enjoyments here be- 
low ; and when could you say that you were happy ? A 
man once tried to find somebody that would declare 
that he was happy. He went to a farmer's house 
whom God had prospered in his business ; and while 
they talked, the farmer pointed to his waving fields 
and green meadows — his full barns and his fine cat- 
tle ; he boasted that everything was flourishing and 
doing well, and his eyes sparkled with pleasure. 
" Then, friend, I suppose you can freely say, I am 
happy — can't you ?" But the farmer's face fell; 
he could say he was well off — comfortable — prosper- 
ous ; but he wasn't happy. 

Then this man called on a lady who had several 
fine children. She told him how well they were 
coming on in school — how good their health was — 
how well they behaved — above all, how they loved 
their mother. Pride and pleasure shone in her face, 
until he said — " Well, surely you are happy." She 
shook her head ; she was fond of her children and 
they were a great comfort to her ; but she couldn't 
say she was happy. 

He tried many others with the same question — 
the rich man with his luxuries, the learned man 
with his books, the newly married man with his bright 



166 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

and loving wife ; but nothing could he find — nothing 
in the wide world — to make a man happy without 
the grace of God. 

" Oh cease, my wandering soul, 
On restless wing to roam ! 
All this wide world to either pole, 
Has not for thee a home I" 

All these vain disappointing pleasures only make 
the man long more for true peace, just as drinking 
salt water makes you more thirsty. And besides 
that, conscience keeps stirring. The restless spirit 
gets more and more burdened with a sense of sin. 
The sinner don't understand himself yet, and he 
imagines all sorts of reasons for his feeling so badly. 
He never dreams that it is peace with Grod that he 
wants, and a clear conscience. So he hurries from 
one worldly pleasure to another — tries to divert his 
mind — tries dissipation — tries to shake off gloomy 
thoughts by keeping lively company, and having 
merry friends about him, to laugh, and sing, and joke 
- — but it's all in vain. 

" He went and joined himself to a citizen of that 
far country, and he sent him into his fields to feed 
swine." As the prodigal son would do anything 
for a little bread to eat, so the sinner will plunge 
into almost any sin that he thinks will ease his mind, 
and bring him a little comfort. Like the thirst 
that torments us in fever, and makes us catch at 
anything to relieve us ; just like that is the troubled 
sinner's distress. He shakes off serious thoughts ; 



PARABLES — THE PRODIGAL SON. 167 

he dances, laughs ; perhaps drinks hard, in the vain 
hope of getting light-hearted and cheerful again. 
But the prodigal son couldn't live on the wages he 
got for feeding swine ; neither can the sinner satis- 
fy his heart with sinful pleasures. 

Then he would fain have filled himself with the 
husks the swine did eat. The husks looked like 
food, and swine could live on them, but not men. 
So, when everything else fails the sinner, he tries 
religious practices ; singing and praying, reading his 
Bible and going to meetings, not because his heart 
desires them, but because he wants to ease the pain 
in his mind. He takes them as physic, when they 
are meant for food. If he could be careless and at 
ease again in sin, how soon he'd quit his pious ways ! 
That's the kind of worship the blind and brutish 
heathen have ; some words and postures and offer- 
ings that will keep their gods from getting angry. 
And that's what the foolish and troubled sinner 
wants to do — quiet God's anger and his own con- 
science by a little outside religion. He would fain 
fill himself with these husks ! But it's all-in vain; 

" Here at his heart the burden lies, 
And past offences pain his eyes." 

And now at last he begins to come to his senses ; 
he begins to feel that nobody can help him but his 
heavenly Father. " What have sins and Satan done 
for me ? What good have T got by all my heartless 
prayers and unwilling worship ? How can Grod be 



168 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

pleased with a mockery that man would despise ? 
Why, the lowliest of God's family, those whom he 
"blesses the least, how much better off they are than 
I ! Oh the riches of his power and goodness ! If 
he would only speak kindly to me ; if he would just 
smile upon me ! I could live on that ; but now I 
perish with hunger. How can I ask him for any 
mercy, when I've treated him so shamefully ? I'm 
utterly unfit to be called his son. 

" ' Oh whither shall I fly, 

Burdened and sick and faint ? 

To whom shall I my troubles show, 

And pour out my complaint V 

"And yet he is a God of mercy ; what wonders 
of love he has shown us already ! If I stay away, 
I shall die for ever ; if I go, he may pity and re- 
ceive me. I will arise and go to my Father. But 
ah, dare I go ? Can he pardon such a wretch as I 
am ? Yes, I must try him, it is my only hope ! I 
will go ancl say unto my Father — ' Father, I have 
sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no 
more worthy to be called thy son ; make me as one 
of thy hired servants.' " 

Now here are two great points gained : the sense 
and confession of sin, and the willingness to pray. 
Often the sinner begins by feeling as if God was a 
hard master, unwilling to let him enjoy himself, and 
threatening to destroy him^ soul and body, for ever, 
if he doesn't give up everything to him. And when 
he goes to pray in that spirit, it's mere begging off. 



PARABLES— THE PRODIGAL SON. 169 

He wants to escape punishment, and he's willing to 
«beg and pray, if he can only get off safe, whether 
he deserves to be punished or not. There's more 
hatred than love in that. 

But true repentance is ashamed of sin, as much 
as it's afraid of woe. It doesn't wait to make a 
bargain with God that we will confess everything, if 
he will only forgive us this time. Oh no ! the sinner 
that truly repents, can't keep from owning his sin. 
His weary and sorrowing heart is sick of its own 
wickedness ; and it would grieve over it, if there 
wasn't any ruin for us after death. He remembers 
the goodness and mercy and holiness of God, and 
compares them with his careless and ungodly ways, 
and he can't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. 
He cries, " Unclean ! unclean !" as the leper did. 
" Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done all 
this evil in thy sight!" 

But the other great step is willingness and courage 
to pray. At first, the more we see our sin and 
danger, the more unwilling we are to go near to 
God ; just as the prodigal son would rather hire him- 
self out to feed swine in a far country than go home 
to his father. It isn't pleasant to look even a man 
in the face, when we know we have behaved badly 
to him ; how much worse to go to God, when we 
know we've been ungrateful and rebellious sons ! 
And then, even when we are willing to go, often we 
are afraid. Our foolish hearts shrink from it, as 
though somehow it made matters worse for us to 
15 



170 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

confess and pray ! We know it isn't so, but the 
feeling — the unbelieving, cowardly feeling — is there.* 
And when at last, by God's grace, we make our 
way to his mercy-seat in spite of all these doubts 
and fears, it's a great and happy victory. 

Oh what a terrible venture it seems to the poor 
guilty, orphan soul, when it resolves to go to Jesus, 
now ', as it is ! 

" I'll go to Jesus, though my sin 
High as a mountain rose ; 
I know his courts — I'll enter in, 
Whatever may oppose." 

He goes, as a man might leap from the top of a 
burning house, or the platform of a breaking railcar ; 
hardly hoping to escape with his life, but not daring 
to wait any longer. blind sinner ! can the ever- 
lasting arms of mercy fail ? Can almighty love 
forsake or slay ? The venture and the peril is all 
in lingering ; only let go everything else, and cling 
to Christ, and all is well. 

But there was one strange mistake in the prodi- 
gal's prayer — it was, going to Ms father, and ask- 
ing to be made a servant. I know he was thinking 
of his sins and his unworthiness ; but still it showed 
how little he knew of a father's heart. That father 
thought a great deal more of his infant days, and 
of the joy of getting his son home again, than of 
all his disobedience. So it turned out that when he 
did fall down before his father and confessed his 



PARABLES — THE PRODIGAL SON. 171 

faults, he stopped short in his prayer. He saw that 
such forgiving love couldnt make him a servant, but 
only a son. 

Now when we go to God repenting, it is true the 
words of our prayer are not like the prodigal son's. 
The Gospel has taught us better. " Not servants, 
but sons," is the glorious promise. And yet the 
feeling in our hearts is just the same. We never 
understand beforehand that we are to be sons and 
daughters of God. We humbly hope that he will 
treat us kindly just as long as we behave ourselves 
well and pray regularly. But when at last we fall 
at Jesus' feet, lost in wonder, love, and praise, we 
begin to understand it. " Would our God give his 
Son to die for any but his children ? Would he take 
our sorrowing and guilty hearts into his hands, and 
comfort and heal us, if we were only to be hired 
servants ? This is a father's love ! I feel it ! Glory 
to my Saviour, I was a rebel and a wretched sinner, 
but now I am a son ! My inmost soul cries, Abba, 
Father!" 

Behold then what manner of love he hath be- 
stowed upon us. He comes forth to meet us, in 
spite of our unbelief and hard heart, and pours his 
love upon us. He puts the robe of Christ's right- 
eousness upon us. He comforts us by his word, and 
he feasts us at his table. Henceforth, returning 
sinner, you have a home with God. Your loneli- 
ness and your hunger, your misery and your sin, are 
all passed away together. 



172 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Why, now, poor wandering and wicked souls, 
why will ye die ? In your father's house is bread 
enough and to spare. There is room for you in 
Jesus' bleeding, gracious heart ; room in the cove- 
nant of life, room among the ransomed here — room 
yonder where rest, and glory, and God are. 

Come ye weary, heavy laden, 

Weak and wounded, sick and sore ; 

Jesus ready stands to save you, 
Full of pity, love, and power. 
He is able, 

He is willing, doubt no more. 



"The full Assurance op Hop 

How happy every child of grace, 

Who knows his sins forgiven ! 
This earth, he cries, is not my place ; 

I seek my place in heaven ; 
A country far from mortal sight, 

Yet, oh, by faith I see ; 
The land of rest, the saints' delight, — 

The heaven prepared for me. 

A stranger in the world below, 

I calmly sojourn here ; 
Nor can its happiness or woe 

Provoke my hope or fear. 
Its evils in a moment end ; 

Its joys as soon are past ; 
But oh the bliss to which I tend 

Eternally shall last ! 



THE REPENTING SINNER RETURNING. 173 

To that Jerusalem above 

With singing I repair ; 
While in the flesh, my joy and love, 

My heart and soul, are there. 
There my exalted Saviour stands, 

My merciful High Priest, 
And still extends his wounded hands 

To take me to his breast. 



"The repenting Sinner returning 

Come, humble sinner, in whose breast, 
A thousand thoughts revolve ; 

Come, with your guilt and fear oppressed 
And make this last resolve : 

" I'll go to Jesus, though my sin 

High as a mountain rose ; 
I know his courts, I'll enter in, 

Whatever may oppose. 

"Prostrate I'll lie before his throne, 

And there my guilt confess ; 
I'll tell him I'm a wretch undone, 

Without his sovereign grace. 

" I'll to the gracious King approach, 

Whose sceptre pardon gives ; 
Perhaps he may command my touch, 

And then the suppliant lives. 
15* 



174 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

" Perhaps he will admit my plea, 
Perhaps will hear my prayer ; 

But if I perish, I will pray, 
And perish only there. 

" I can but perish if I go, 
I am resolved to try ; 

For if I stay away, I know 
I must for ever die." 



SERMON XI. 

CHRIST'S FRIENDS AND ENEMIES. 

" He that is not with me is against me." Matt xii. 30. 
" He that is not against us is for us." Luke ix. 50. 

In that sad day on Mount Sinai, when God sent 
Moses down in great haste, because Aaron and the 
people had made and worshipped the golden calf; 
and when Moses threw down the sacred tables of 
stone, where the law was written with God's own 
finger ; threw them down and broke them in his 
holy sorrow and anger ; in that sad day, the man 
of God stood in the gate of the camp, and cried 
aloud, "Who is on the Lord's side ?" There stood 
the shameful idol, lifted up on high where all could 
see it ; most of the people stood round, with nearly 
all their clothes thrown off, ashamed and frightened 
when they saw Moses come back, that they thought 
was dead ; but many kept right on with their wicked 
idol- worship, and rioting, and feasting, caring neither 
for Moses nor his God. There too, almost over 
their heads, were the awful rocks of Sinai, with the 
cloud and fire of Jehovah, gleaming fierce through 
the blackness, but silent and still. Clear and loud, 

(175) 



176 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

over all the heathen tumult, came that solemn ques- 
tion : Who is on the Lord's side ? And the sons 
of Levi, that had hidden their shame and tears in 
their tents till then, came out and gathered around 
the leader that God had given them, and stood 
ready to obey his commands. As they went through 
the camp, killing the headstrong and obstinate 
rebels who would not give up their idol, they saved 
all Israel from destruction by coming out manfully 
on the Lord's side. 

And now, as we study the life of the Lord Jesus, 
the question keeps coming up in our thoughts ; who 
was on his side, and who was against him ? The 
world was full of wickedness. The honour of God 
was insulted on every hand. Our Saviour came 
preaching repentance and salvation to dying men. 
He was man's true, brave, and gracious friend. 
Who loved him? Who helped him? Who bated, 
and hindered, and grieved him ? 

Those two short verses I read you just now, will 
show you that everybody that had anything to do 
with him at all was on one side or the other. He 
had to be either Christ's friend, or his enemy. So 
it is now. Every man and woman, in a Christian 
country, is either the enemy or the friend of our 
great Redeemer ! But we'll come back to that 
point after a while. Now, I want to show you some 
of the people that lived when the Lord was on the 
earth ; and that were plainly on his side, or turned 
against him. 



CHRIST'S FRIENDS AND ENEMIES. 177 

I. And first, some of his enemies. Does it seem 
strange to you, that such a pure and gracious being 
should have enemies ? Ah ! that only shows you 
what a vile and wicked world this is. The nobler 
and purer anybody is, the more he is hated. Why, 
who is blasphemed and dishonoured like our God ? 
And because the Lord Jesus was so beautifully good ; 
because he would not give up an inch to the proud 
and wicked of this world ; because he abhorred all 
manner of sin, they gnashed their teeth at him, and 
finally betrayed and killed him. 

His first enemies were the Pharisees. As I have 
told you about them before, a very few words will 
be enough now. They trusted in themselves that 
they were righteous, and despised others. Their 
righteousness stood in meats and drinks ; in fasting 
and long prayers ; in washing their hands often, and 
keeping all the ceremonies of the law strictly. All 
the while, their hearts were proud and selfish ; no 
deep repentance ; no faith, no love ; nothing but 
what they called good works. And when the 
Lord Jesus came, they were offended at him. He 
kept the law carefully ; but then he told everybody 
that keeping the law wouldn't do them any good, 
if their heart wasn't right. And the very thing 
the Pharisees wanted was some good works that 
would answer for a religion without changing the 
heart. No wonder they quarrelled with him, then. 
The trouble wasn't that they were overcareful of 
good works. A man can't be a good Christian 



178 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

without being very particular about his conduct ; 
true religion will make him particular. But the 
trouble was that they wanted to do without a 
Saviour : they would not receive the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and love and obey him. And so, the more 
glorious he appeared, the more their hearts were 
hardened against him ; until they hated him enough 
to kill him. 

Then came the Sadducees. They didn't believe in 
angels nor in devils ; nor that there was any more living 
after we died ; any heaven, any hell, any eternity ! 
Of course they had no use for a Saviour of souls. 
If the Lord Jesus would have agreed to reign over 
them, and lead them in battle, and conquer all the 
nations for them, they would have followed him over 
the whole world. But he was " the Lamb of God 
who taketh away the sin of the world ;" his kingdom 
was " the kingdom of heaven. " So the Sadducees 
despised and hated him, and at last actually joined 
in the plot against him, and helped to kill him. 

Another company of his enemies was the scribes 
and lawyers. The scribes' business was to take care 
of the books of the Old Testament. They copied 
them and compared different copies together, to see 
if they were all right. They even counted the very 
letters of their Bible, and every one must have just 
the right number of letters in it, or they would cut 
it up or burn it up. So far, it was all very well ; 
but their proud and foolish hearts went on to think 
the sacred letters and books so holy, that it made a 



Christ's friends and enemies. 179 

man righteous above everybody else, just to copy 
and study them. They made their Bible their God ; 
they made a Saviour for themselves out of their pen 
and ink ! They neglected true religion, and lived 
selfish and wicked lives, and kept impenitent and 
unbelieving hearts, and yet expected to be saved 
for their righteousness ! So they were jealous of 
the Lord, from the first day he began to preach. 
They rejected and hated him, because he taught 
men so wisely that they could not answer his words. 
They, too, took a place among the enemies of 
Christ. 

And what a dreadful thing it is to think of, that 
the specially religious persons in the Jewish nation 
should be the very ones to hate and hinder the Lord 
of glory! " He came unto his own, and his own re- 
ceived him not." The more light and knowledge 
they had had, the more their souls were set against 
the only Saviour of men. While he lived, they 
opposed him ; when he worked wonders and saved 
men, they plotted against him ; and when he was 
dying they mocked him ! 

Then again, there were the Gradarenes. So far as 
we know, our Lord visited them but once. Perhaps 
you will think they were very unfortunate, to be 
passed by, while Capernaum and Cana had so many 
visits. But I think it was a mercy that the Lord 
Jesus stayed away. For how did they treat him 
when he did come to them ? He had sailed over 
the Sea of Galilee, on purpose to do them a great 



180 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

kindness by healing some of their sick people. As 
he went up the hill from the water's edge, two men 
met him. They were possessed with devils — so 
wild and fierce that nobody dared to travel that 
way. People had caught them and chained them, 
sometimes ; but in their mad strength they broke 
the chains and tore off the fetters — ran out of the 
city, and lived in the holes dug out of the rocks to 
bury dead bodies in. There they lived — wandering 
over the mountains, crying out and cutting them- 
selves with stones. 

But when they saw Jesus — wild and terrible as 
they were — they ran to him, fell down at his feet 
and worshipped him ! He bade the devils come out 
of the men ; but instead of obeying him at once, 
they dared to delay and pray to him, using the men's 
voice. " What have we to do with thee thou son of 
the most High God ? We adjure thee, torment us not 
before the time !" Still the command came back to 
them, clear and firm — " Come out of the men I" And 
again the devils begged him not to send them out 
of the country, but at least to let them go into the 
swine ! That shows you what a great victory the 
Lord Jesus won, when Satan tempted him. What 
a difference in their words, now and then ! Then 
Satan tried to bribe our Saviour to worship him ; 
now they make those mean and foolish cries before 
him, and confess that he is the Master, and they are 
his servants. They hate him ; they do him and men 



CHRIST'S FRIENDS AND ENEMIES. 181 

all the harm they can ; but they have to obey his 
commands. 

Now the Gadarenes had no right to keep those 
herds of swine. It was against their own law. So 
our Lord was willing to save these two poor men, 
and cure the people of their sin, and punish the 
devils by granting their prayer, all at once. So he 
said to the devils, Go ! Then the whole legion left the 
men, and entered into the swine. In a moment the 
men were cured, and in their right mind again ; they 
sat at Jesus' feet, clothed decently, and full of 
thanks to him who had done such wonders for them. 
But the swine ran violently down a steep place into 
the sea, and were drowned. 

Then the men who kept the swine went into the 
city and told what had happened ; and the Gadarenes 
came out to see about it. And when they found it 
was even so, they had to choose between the Saviour, 
who had cured their friends and was ready to bless 
them, and their unlawful business. And alas ! they 
were all agreed about it ; they couldn't give up their 
wicked gains. They besought the Lord Jesus to de- 
part out of their country. They had rather give 
up their Redeemer than their swine ! So he heard 
their prayer, and got into his boat, and went away. 
And, so far as we know, he never went to them 
again. 

Now, I say, these Gadarenes must be counted 
among Christ's enemies. They wouldn't have him 
to reign over them, and they drove him out of their 
16 



182 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

country. All his love and blessing and mighty 
grace went with him. They had sold all their heav- 
enly hopes for their swine ! 

I might go on to speak of other enemies. There 
was king Herod, who could have saved Christ's 
life by a word, as you will see when we come to his 
trial, but his proud and cruel heart turned against 
our meek and lovely Saviour. So he mocked him, 
and wrapped him in purple robes, and sent him 
back to Pilate to die. There was Judas, who be- 
trayed his Master, and sold him to the priests for 
thirty pieces of silver — partly because he was enraged 
against him, and partly because he loved money. 
But these are as many as we have time to speak 
of, and enough to show you what kind of people 
they were. 

You see there was a great variety among them 
in other points. From the self-righteous and haughty 
Pharisees to the Gadarenes feeding their swine— whom 
the Pharisees would hardly speak to, except to curse 
them for breaking the law ; from the miserly Judas to 
king Herod — all kinds of people could be our Lord's 
enemies. But they all agreed in this ; they refused 
to receive him as the Son of Grod — to take him into 
their hearts, as the Saviour of their souls, and the 
Master of their lives. That was their sin; and 
that was their ruin. 

II. -We come now to Christ's friends. They were 
not so many as his foes ; but what a glory it is to 
them to be told of in the Bible and in every church, and 



Christ's friends and enemies. 183 

in every land, as the faithful and true hearted ones ! 
Poor and simple as they stand, they have a name 
of honour, and a store of blessing, that will outlive 
the sun and the stars. They are the jewels in Jesus' 
crown, and the best loved of his heart. 

First on the list come the Apostles. There was 
a great difference among them. Some were rich, 
and some were poor. One was a publican, and an- 
other was " an Israelite indeed in whom there was 
no guile." One was a Thomas — wilful, positive, 
full of unbelief; another was called James the Just. 
But they all agreed in one thing. They " left all 
and followed him." They gave up all their pros- 
pects of earthly comfort — their hopes of a happy 
home, and a quiet life, and honour among their coun- 
trymen, and a peaceful old age, and to die in the 
bosom of their families — sacrificed it all, to follow 
Jesus. They didn't understand him at first ; they 
were full of pride and prejudice and ignorance and 
mistake ; but nevertheless they obeyed and trusted 
him when they were most perplexed, frightened, 
and cast down ; and they at last committed their souls 
to him to be saved. They forsook him when he was 
betrayed ; but they returned to their love and faith- 
fulness when he died ; and so the Lord, when he 
rose from the grave, called them his brethren — " Go 
and tell my brethren that I go before them into Ga- 
lilee ; there shall ye see me!" 

Lazarus and Mary and Martha were also friends 
of Jesus. And it's a singular and comforting thing 



184 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

that we are not told of anything that Lazarus did 
for his Lord ; only that Jesus loved him. He wasn't 
a great preacher, or a wise man, or even a rich man, 
so far as we can find out. But the Lord loved him. 
Mary was the gentle daughter ; Martha was the 
bustling, energetic friend ; and he had a place in his 
heart for them all. When his day's work was done 
in Jerusalem — his miracles, and preaching, and 
reasoning, and rebuking ; when his weary head must 
rest, and his lonely heart wanted comfort, he went 
out through the gates in the cool of the evening, 
tarried a little while, maybe, in the garden of 
Gethsemane, and then as night came on, he sat 
down in Lazarus' house in Bethany, just over the 
hill. Perhaps they sat on the flat house-top to- 
gether ; they washed his aching feet with cool water ; 
and when he was refreshed, they sat down at his 
feet, and listened to his wise and gracious words, 
that were " like cold waters to the thirsty," because 
they were "good news from a far country." 

They were not called on to give up all and follow 
him, like the Apostles. They were not " persecuted 
for righteousness' sake," that we know of, until 
after Lazarus was raised from the dead. But they 
were the friends of Jesus, because they received him 
as their Saviour, and owned him as their Lord. 
And all earth and heaven shall hear of them, 
because of their faith, as the people whom the Lord 
loved. 

And there were "Joanna, the wife of Chuza. 



Christ's friends and enemies. 185 

Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, 
who followed him," and supplied his wants out of 
their property. Our lowly Saviour, who could feed 
five thousand with a few loaves, and to whom the 
whole world belonged, was not above receiving his 
daily bread and his simple clothing from these women 
who believed on him. They also accepted, trusted, 
and obeyed him ; and they also are written down 
among his friends. 

We mustn't forget Zaecheus, whom the Lord Jesus 
so publicly acknowledged as his friend. He, too, 
was a publican, and was hated for it by the Jews. 
" They murmured at Jesus, because he was gone to 
eat with a man who was a sinner." But he showed 
his gratitude and love that day, by giving away 
half of all his goods to the poor, and paying back 
to every man whose money he had taken unjustly, 
four times as much as he took away. Now, it wasn't 
the giving away and paying back that made him 
Christ's friend, but the reason why he did it. He 
had found his Saviour, and his heart was full of love 
and joy. " This day," the Lord said ; "this day 
is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as 
Zaccheus also is a son of Abraham." 

And we must also count the Samaritan woman as 
one of the friends, though she had been such a sinner, 
and though she was so ignorant. For she accepted 
Christ as soon as he told her who he was, and ran 
to bring others to see and hear him. 

One more we must remember, fearful and faint- 
16* 



186 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

hearted as he was ; Nicodemus. He was a ruler of 
the Jews, and a master in Israel ; the same came to 
Jesus by night. He was afraid of the other rulers and 
the Pharisees. He never forgot what he learned 
that night ; but he hadn't the courage to come out 
manfully on the Lord's side, while Jesus lived. 
When he tried to defend his Saviour in the council, 
he did it cautiously and faintly, and without pro- 
fessing to be his disciple. Nevertheless, he trusted 
in him silently, prayed for him, watched over him ; 
and when the Apostles forsook him and fled, and 
Peter had denied him, he and Joseph grew brave, 
took the poor broken body under their care, and 
were seen by all men to be his followers. Thus, 
feeble and fearful as he was, the Lord didn't disown 
him and cast him off. He " received him," though 
he was "weak in the faith." 

These all believed on the Lord, and were owned 
and blessed of God ; they, and such as they, were 
the friends of Christ, because they all received him 
as the Son of God ; the Saviour and the King of 
men. And the enemies of Christ, as you heard 
just now, became so by refusing him as their 
Saviour and Master, and God's Son. That made 
the difference in those days, and it makes the dif- 
ference now. 

Now let us try this rule on Peter and the young 
ruler, and see how they are to be counted ; on the 
Lord's side, or against him ? You remember Peter 
was very rash and hasty : had to be rebuked very 



CHRIST'S FRIENDS AND ENEMIES, 187 

often and very sharply. It was to him the Lord 
Jesus said, " Get thee behind me, Satan !" And in 
the terrible time when our Lord was seized and 
bound, and tried, and scourged, Peter denied him, 
over and over again, with oaths and curses ! 

On the other side, there was the young ruler, 
so much in earnest that he ran to the Saviour and 
kneeled at his feet before all the multitude, crying, 
" Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal 
life?" When Christ told him to keep the com- 
mandments, he was able to say, " All these have I 
kept from my youth up." And Jesus looked 
earnestly at him and loved him* So correct was 
his life, and so tender was his heart ! Jesus loved 
Lazarus who was his friend ; he also loved the 
young ruler ; was he also a friend ? 

Alas ! he went away sorrowful, refusing to sell all 
that he had and follow Christ; "for he had great 
possessions." He longed to be saved ; but he 
wouldn't give up aU for Christ There stood his 
meek but mighty Saviour, offering him eternal life. 
He was to purchase that life for him with his 
precious blood. But all his love and all his blood 
was rejected, for the sake of earthly riches. Correct 
and even lovely as he was, he refused to take his 
Saviour into his heart ; and so he must take his 
place among the enemies. 

But Peter, with all his faults and all his sins, was 
a friend of Christ. He owned our Lord as Son of 
God, and Saviour of the World. " Blessed art thou, 



188 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Simon son of Jona !" said Jesus ; "flesh and blood 
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which 
is in heaven." He repented bitterly of his sins; 
he gave up all his hopes and friends and worldly 
prospects to serve him. He entrusted his soul to 
him. So rash, headstrong, Christ-denying Peter 
was a friend, while the virtuous young ruler made 
himself an enemy. 

Now let conscience take up the question : Who is 
on the Lord's side ? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ 
to-day; he came into the world to be a Saviour. 
His whole heart was in it. He never turned aside 
to any other work, as long as he lived. He was the 
good shepherd, that gave his life for the sheep. 
Cruel enemies howled round him like wolves, and 
rested not till they nailed him to the shameful cross. 
Some plain people loved him with a true though 
fearful heart. They followed him through his 
journeys, in his poverty and reproach and loneli- 
ness. They were willing to be despised and hated 
of all men for his sake. And though they were 
frightened and fled for a little while when he was 
first seized, they came back, one by one, to weep 
for him when he was dead, and to hail him with fear 
and great joy when he rose from the grave. And 
then they went everywhere, trusting him, serving 
him, preaching for him, till he called them into his 
glory. 

Whose partner are you ? Do you belong to the 
company of those who received, or of those who re- 



REPENTANCE. 189 

jected him ? Do you go to his bleeding feet with 
all your sins, and all your idols, and surrender 
yourself to him ? Or do you hold on to something 
earthly ; some pride or passion or vain hope, and 
"let your God, your Saviour, go ?" 

You may not answer that question to me ; you 
may not answer it plainly and bravely to yourself. 
But remember, it is answered; every day it is 
answered, one way or the other. And when the 
great last day comes, the angels will divide us, and 
bring us to the right hand or the left hand of the 
Judge, according as we have answered that question 
in our hearts. There will be the heavenly King in 
all his glory, and all the holy angels with him, call- 
ing his loved ones into heaven, and sending the 
wicked down to hell. Ah ! it will be a great matter 
to us that day, how we settled this plain question : 
Are we the King's friends, or his enemies ? 



Repentance 



Oh ! for a glance of heavenly day, 
To take this stubborn stone away ; 
And thaw, with beams of love divine, 
This heart, this frozen heart of mine. 

The rocks can rend ; the earth can quake ; 
The sea can roar ; the mountains shake ; 
Of feeling all things show some sign, 
But this unfeeling heart of mine. 



190 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

To hear the sorrows thou hast felt, 
Dear Lord, an adamant would melt ; 
But I can read each moving line, 
And nothing move this heart of mine. 

Thy judgments, too, unmoved I hear, 
(Amazing thought !) which devils fear : 
Goodness and wrath in vain combine, 
To stir this stupid heart of mine. 

But power divine can do the deed, 
And much to feel that power I need ; 
Thy Spirit can from dross refine, 
And move and melt this heart of mine. 



Love to Christ. 

Do not I love thee, my Lord ? — 

Behold my heart and see : 
And turn each worthless idol out, 

That dares to rival thee. 

Do not I love thee from my soul ? 

Then let me nothing love : 
Dead be my heart to every joy, 

Which thou dost not approve. 

Is not thy name melodious still 

To mine attentive ear ? 
Doth not each pulse with pleasure beat 

My Saviour's voice to hear ? 



LOVE TO CHRIST. 191 

Hast thou a lamb in all thy flock, 

I would disdain to feed ? 
Hast thou a foe, before whose face 

I fear thy cause to plead ? 

Thou know'st I love thee, my Lord ; 

But yet I long to soar 
Far from the sphere of mortal joys, 

That I may love thee more. 



SERMON XII. 

LAST DAYS. 

" Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which 
is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes 
sought how they might kill him; for they feared the 
people." — Luke xxii. 1, 2. 

Among all the mighty works which the Lord Je- 
sus did, the most wonderful was raising Lazarus 
from the grave, after he had been four days dead. 
It was the only miracle of that sort that he did near 
Jerusalem ; the others were done away off in Gal- 
ilee. It made a great stir in that blind and wicked 
city, which " killed the prophets and stoned them 
that were sent to her ;" and the chief priests and 
scribes were so enraged, that they wanted to mur- 
der both Christ and Lazarus, for fear the people 
would believe on Christ ! So the Lord had gone 
back over the Jordan, and stayed there until the 
feast of the Passover was ready to begin. That 
was the appointed time when he was to come out 
boldly, and show himself as our Saviour and King. 
You remember how often he said — " My hour is not 
17 (193) 



194 PLANTATION SERMONB. 

yet come ;" now at last it came and he was 
ready. 

The great council of the Jews sent out their or- 
der, that if anybody knew where he was, he must 
make it known so that they might take him. So, 
instead of going on to Jerusalem with the great 
company of people that came up to the feast, Jesus 
stayed at Bethany, with his friend Lazarus. And 
as the news spread in the city that he was close by, 
in the village, a great many people went out to see 
him and hear him. They wanted to see Lazarus 
too ; for since the world began, such a sight was never 
seen before as a man come back to life, after he 
had lain in the grave four days already. 

Many of these people spent the whole night in 
Bethany, because they wanted to go with Jesus in 
the morning ; but others went back and told the 
great multitudes that it was all true, what they had 
heard about the rising from the dead. They also 
gave notice that he was coming to the Temple the 
next day. 

And when morning came, our Lord, who had kept 
his work so quiet before, now made everything ready 
to enter the city like an ancient king. He sent for 
a young ass' colt, that was never ridden before; 
some of the disciples laid some of their clothes on 
its back, and he sat on them. In a moment the 
people, that had stayed in Bethany, saw what he 
was going to do, and rejoiced, and joined in the pro- 
cession — throwing green branches in the way, and 



LAST DAYS. 195 

even the very robes that they wore. As they 
went on, over the Mount of Olives, hundreds and 
thousands of the people met them from the city and 
followed on together, till they passed the top of the 
hill, and could see the Temple where they were go- 
ing. 

Then they broke out with songs and shouts of 
joy; they sang the very words, taken from the 
Psalms, that the Jews were keeping to hail the Me- 
siah with, when he should come : — 

Hosanna ! 
Blessed is the King of Israel 

That cometh in the name of the Lord ! 
Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, 
That cometh in the name of the Lord ! 

Hosanna in the highest ! * 

Louder and louder rose the mighty shouts — Blessed 
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord — Peace 
on earth, and glory in the highest — till the whole city 
heard them, and was moved. The people cried — 
Who is this ? And the multitude answered — This 
is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth. And so was ful- 
filled the word of God's ancient prophet, Zechariah : 
' Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion ; shout; 
daughter of Jerusalem ; behold, thy King cometh 
unto thee ! He is just and hath salvation ; lowly, 
and riding upon an ass, even a colt the foal of an 



ass." 



* Taken from Kitto's Daily Bible Illustrations. 



196 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

He went right on to the Temple, and cast out all 
them that sold and bought in it, and overthrew the 
tables of tbe money-changers, and the seats of them 
that sold doves. He used no u scourge of small 
cords' ' this time; for nobody dared to resist him, 
while the thousands of the people were shouting his 
praises, and the very children caught up the joyful 
song, and cried, Hosanna to the Son of David. The 
chief priests were sore displeased that he should be 
received as the Christ ; but Jesus said — u Have ye 
never read — Out of the mouths of babes and suck- 
lings thou hast perfected praise !" 

No doubt, now, the disciples and the multitude 
all expected the Lord Jesus to go right on and make 
himself King in Zion — turn out the Romans — gather 
an army and conquer the world. And they would 
certainly have fought like heroes under his banner. 
But there was one thing they hadn't courage for — 
waiting patiently, and trusting him. And when he 
disappointed their worldly hopes, they began to fall 
off from him, and all their Hosannas came to no- 
thing. They saw their Saviour, owned him, and 
then forsook him. And Christ showed them what 
he thought of it, the next day, by one of the 
strangest things he did in his whole life. 

As soon as he had reached the Temple and looked 
about on all things, he went back to Bethany, and 
finished the day and spent the night there. Id the 
morning, as he went over to Jerusalem before break- 
fast to attend on the morning sacrifice, he was hun- 



LAST DAYS. 197 

gry, and turned aside to a fig tree, that made such a 
show of leaves while the other trees were bare, that 
anybody might expect to find it full of figs. That's 
the way with the fig tree — its leaves flourish most, 
just when the fruit is getting ripe and fit to eat. So 
the tree made great promises ; but when Jesus came 
to it, there was no fruit there ! Just like this fool- 
ish multitude, that shouted so loud and seemed so 
earnest, and yet forsook him because they had no 
faith. Jesus said to the tree — " No man eat fruit 
of thee hereafter,' ' and straightway it withered 
away ! And just so was the curse of God ready 
to fall on the Jewish people and wither them 
away. 

No wonder that our kind Lord had stopped, the 
day before, in the midst of their praises and songs, 
to weep over beautiful but lost Jerusalem ! "If 
thou hadst known," he said, " even thou, at least in 
this thy day, the things which belong unto thy 
peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For 
the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies 
shall cast a trench about thee, and shall lay thee 
even with the ground, and thy children within thee ; 
and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon 
another, because thou knowest not the time of thy 
visitation." And the long day of their mercy was 
over at last ! 

Now the chief priests and elders were resolved to 
destroy our Lord in some way, but they were afraid 
of the people ; unless they could make them turn 
17* 



198 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

against him, or the Roman Governor seize on him, 
they could not touch him. So they agreed with the 
Sadducees and the Herodians to send cunning mess- 
engers and to ask him ensnaring questions, so that 
he should either vex the people or provoke the 
governor. 

First they asked him, by what authority he drove 
the traders out of the temple. If he said by his 
own authority, they would call it blasphemy to 
claim any power in God's house ; or if he said that 
any man had a right to do so, then they would call 
him a disturber of the peace and an enemy to gov- 
ernment. But he answered them by asking a ques- 
tion of them : " Was John the Baptist a true prophet, 
or a false prophet ?" If they said, a true prophet, 
they saw he would ask them why they wouldn't 
believe on him. If they said, a false prophet, the 
people would stone them ; for their minds were all 
made up, that God did send him. So they answered, 
" We cannot tell." Then our Lord said, "Neither 
tell I you by what authority I do these things." 

They asked him again, " Shall we pay tribute to 
the Romans, or not ?" The Romans had the power 
over them, and they had to pay it ; but the Jews 
all hated to own it. So if our Lord said Yes, the 
Jews would be enraged against him ; and if he said 
No, they would accuse him to Pilate. Now, the 
money we use is stamped with a certain mark, and 
that shows what country we belong to ; and so the 
money the Jews had was stamped with a Roman 



LAST DAYS. 199 

mark, and that showed what country they belonged 
to. Then the Lord Jesus said : " Ye hypocrites ! 
why do ye tempt me ? Show me a penny." They 
brought it, and behold there was the Roman mark 
on it. He answered : " Render therefore to Cesar 
the things that are Cesar's, and to God the things 
that are God's." That is : If you confess that the 
Romans reign over you, obey them ; and if you con- 
fess that God reigns over you, obey him. 

Then the Sadducees asked him : u If a woman was 
married seven times, and had no children by any 
marriage, whose wife would she be in heaven ?" For 
these Sadducees didn't believe in a heaven. But 
Jesus told them that they understood neither the 
Bible nor the power of God. In heaven, people 
neither marry nor are given in marriage ; they are 
like the angels of God. But as to the resurrection ; 
did not God say to Moses, "I am the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob?" God is not the God of the dead, but of 
the living. So Abraham and Isaac and Jacob must 
be alive, though they died so many hundred years 
ago. 

That silenced the Sadducees; and all the rest 
were astonished and delighted. But they ques- 
tioned him once more : " Which is the greatest 
commandment of all in the law ?" Now the wise 
men disputed a great deal about that, but the people 
believed the commandments were all equal. The 
Lord answered them by putting all the law into two 



200 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

great commandments : " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great 
commandment. And the second is like unto it; 
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these 
two commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets.' ' When the scribe that asked the ques- 
tion heard that, he could not keep silence, it was so 
beautiful and so true. He cried out, u Well, master, 
thou hast said the truth ! To love God with all the 
heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, is more than 
burnt offerings and sacrifices/ ' 

While his enemies stood there, perplexed and put 
to shame, Jesus asked them a question. "What 
think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?" They 
said, " The son of David." " How then does David 
call him Lord ; ' The Lord said unto my Lord, sit 
thou upon my right hand, till I make thine enemies 
thy footstool V If David called him Lord, how 
is he his son ?" And they could not answer him a 
word ; for they looked for a Messiah that would be 
a mere man, and a king ; but David was a king too, 
and wouldn't need to call any human being Lord. 
So they were silenced, and their wicked plans de- 
feated. Neither did they ever try again to puzzle 
him by hard questions. 

Then the Lord turned upon them, and showed 
the people what blind guides and hypocrites the 
Pharisees and lawyers were. He pronounced dread- 
ful woes upon them, for hardening their hearts, and 



LAST DAYS. 201 

cheating and ruining the poor ignorant multitudes ; 
and though they thirsted for his blood, yet the peo- 
ple loved him too much yet for them to hurt him in 
open day. So he poured out his holy indignation, 
and told them how they had destroyed themselves 
and their nation. 

While these great crowds were still pressing 
around the Lord Jesus, several men who had been 
heathens, but had given up their idols and taken 
the Jews' religion, went to the Apostle Philip, 
and said; "Sir, we want to see Jesus." It 
seems that Philip was a little doubtful about it, 
because our Lord had hardly ever taken notice of 
any people, except those that were born Jews. So 
Philip asked Andrew, and they both went to Christ 
and told him about these "Greeks," as they were 
called. And our gracious Saviour sent for them at 
once, and preached the gospel to them, too. It was 
a very solemn time, because that was the passing 
away of the gospel out of the hands of the Jews, 
and taking in both Jews and Greeks alike. While 
our Lord was talking to them, and telling them that 
he should soon leave the world, and those who loved 
him should follow him where he was going, a sudden 
fear and great sorrow fell upon him. The awful 
scenes that were coming began to fill his soul with 
shadows and trouble. He cried out, " Now is 
my soul troubled ! what shall I say ? Father, save 
me from this hour ? But for this cause I came 
to this hour. Father, glorify thy name J" That 



202 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

was his victory ; he would ask nothing but his 
Father's glory. 

Then once more came a voice from heaven to him, 
as at the first — " I have both glorified it, and I will 
glorify it again." Some, when they got over their 
first astonishment, said it was thunder ; some, that 
an angel spoke to Jesus. But he said it was a 
voice that came for their sakes ; and he prophesied 
that when he had been lifted up on the cross, he 
would draw all sorts of people to him. And so it 
has turned out. Jews and Gentiles, the wise and 
the savage, black people, red people, white people 
— all kinds of men over the whole world have 
found the blood of our Redeemer precious to their 
souls. Those three or four Greeks were only the 
first of many millions that have come to Jesus and 
found life in believing in him. 

Soon after this, as the Lord Jesus with his apos- 
tles was coming out of the Temple, which Herod 
was still building up and making more beautiful, 
they said, " Master, see what manner of stones and 
what buildings are here !" Jesus answered — " See 
ye not all these things ? Verily I say unto you, 
There shall not be left here one stone upon another, 
that shall not be thrown down. ,, 

How shocked and grieved they must have been ! 
That wonderful and splendid house began to be 
built before Jesus was born ; and sometimes thou- 
sands of men were working on it together. Gold 
and marble and precious stones shone every- 



LAST DAYS. 203 

where ; until even the Jews who hated Herod so 
bitterly, grew proud of it, and were ready to kill 
anybody that said a word against it. And now the 
Lord tells his disciples that it will soon vanish away 
— all its glory and all its mighty pillars will tumble 
into ruins together ! And as they thought over it, 
they began to imagine that the fall of the Temple, 
and his coming in glorious power, and the end of 
the world, must all come together. So they came 
to him privately, to ask him about it ; saying " Tell 
us — when shall these things be ? And what shall be 
the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world ? 
They were sitting on the Mount of Olives, just 
between Bethany and Jerusalem ; and they could 
look down right into the streets and grounds of that 
sacred city. It used to be called the Holy City, 
and many of the Jews call it so still ; but it was 
truly a wicked city, because they sinned so wilfully 
against such great light. Beautiful for situation 
— proud and strong — was Jerusalem ! Hundreds 
of thousands of people crowded there to the feasts ; 
and every man of them was ready to die, fighting for 
their glorious Temple. But those streets were to be 
red with murder, and those walls would be torn to 
pieces by the heathen. All because the blind and 
wicked people rebelled against God, and rejected 
the Lord Jesus. They would not have this man to 
reign over them ; and therefore the sentence went 
out — " Those my enemies, who would not that I 
should reign over them, bring hither and slay them 



204 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

before my face." And to save his people from being 
destroyed with those condemned and miserable rebels, 
the Lord went on to tell them some of the signs of 
that terrible time, that they might escape before it 
came on. 

" There will be a great many false Christs" he 
told them. The Jews wanted a great king to fight 
for them ; you remember they wanted to take Jesus 
by force and make him such a king. So " many 
will rise up and say ' I am he ; ' but believe them 
not. If they tell you, ' He is in the desert, 1 go 
not out; or 'in the secret chambers,' believe it 
not ; for when the Son of man does come, it will 
be like the flashing of the lightning, that blazes 
from east to west in a moment, and needs nobody to 
tell you where it is. 

" Then there will be many wars, and many more 
reports of wars. In those troubled times, everybody 
will be ready to believe anything that is horrible. 
The world will be full of bloody deeds and bloody 
fancies. Earthquakes will break out and shake the 
world. Sorrow and fear will hinder the farmers, 
and God will blast the fields ; and there shall be 
terrible famines, and diseases, and plagues. Nation 
will rise against nation, and kingdom against 
kingdom ; false prophets will come and deceive 
many. 

" The people of God shall be persecuted, be- 
cause they believe on the Son of God. Men shall 
deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you : 



LAST DAYS. 205 

and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's 
sake. And in their misery and danger, many shall 
fall back into sin ; yea, they shall hate and betray 
one another ! Thus iniquity shall abound, both in 
the world and in the church, and the love of many 
for their Lord shall grow cold and feeble. But those 
that stand faithful, and endure to the end, they shall 
be saved. 

" All these things shall come before the great 
destruction. Don't be frightened, or run from your 
duties yet. The blessed gospel must be preached 
to all nations, and the offer of mercy travel out to 
all the kingdoms. And when that is done, then in- 
deed the end will come, and Jerusalem, and all the 
land of Israel will perish. Then keep watch for 
the sign I give you. And as soon as you see the 
idol of the heathen soldiers brought to the holy 
temple grounds, then escape for your lives ! Let 
all that believe on Christ flee to the mountains, and 
hide till the awful woes of the Jews are over. For 
such anguish and distress shall come then as never 
fell on the world before, and shall never fall again 
while the world stands. If it wasn't for pity of 
the Lord's people, nobody would live through those 
days ; but for their sake fc the days of trouble shall 
be shortened. Jerusalem shall be destroyed, and 
laid even with the ground, and the Jewish nation 
shall be scattered and peeled and trodden down to 
the dust; but the children of God shall be deli- 
vered. 
18 



206 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

" But as to that other day — the day of judg- 
ment and the end of the world — -no man knows the 
time of it; no, not even the angels of God, but the 
Father only. The world shall have no sign of that 
time ; men will go on, eating and drinking, marry- 
ing and giving in marriage, until the Son of Man 
comes. Just as it was in Noah's days ; nobody 
knew of the flood till it burst on the earth, and 
swept away the nations. And so it will be when 
Christ comes. 

" And the way to be ready for that day, isn't to 
know just when it is coming. It is to live ready. 
Always praying, always watching — keeping our 
hearts and our lives so that they can go before the 
great Judge whenever he comes — so we can be safe, 
and no other way. If you knew when the thief was 
coming to break into your house, you would be 
watching for him then; but if you only know he is 
coming, and not when he will break in, you must 
watch all night. So the Son of man will surely come. 
Nothing else is so certain as that. Heaven and 
earth will pass away, but my word shall not pass 
away. But you will have no hint of it. You will 
awake and find the Judge here !" 

He will sit on his glorio'us throne, brighter than 
the noonday sun, and all the holy angels will 
be there, shining like the stars. Every living soul 
will be gathered before him, and all the countless 
dead will awake and arise, at the voice of the terri- 
ble trump of God. Then the angels will come 



LAST DAYS. 207 

and separate us from one another. " Your place is 
on the right hand, yours on the left — you must go 
to the left — you to the right !" Oh does not your 
heart cry out already — "Great God, my Saviour, 
where shall I be found?" What partings will be 
there — what shrieks, and desperate prayers, and 
hopeless wailings, as parents and children, husbands 
and wives, pastors and people, " part to meet no 
more !" Yes, sinners, and Jesus will be parting too : 
but there will be no sorrow on that heavenly face. 
Here, he was a man of sorrows ; there he will be 
God the Judge. 

But how shall we be parted ? What will make 
the difference between us ? We have all sinned 
here, and all gone to church, and all intended to be 
saved some time. sinner, hear it — hear it ! As 
you have treated the Lord Jesus and his people in this 
world, so shall your doom be. If you have loved 
and trusted him here, and cared for the least of 
those he loves, he will say, " Come, ye blessed of 
my Father ! inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
from the foundation of the world." But if you 
harden your heart against him here, he will frown 
upon you yonder, and say, " Depart, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
angels !" Go and live with my Father's worst ene- 
mies, and take the endless w T oe that he created for 
them. 

Now may God's Holy Spirit bless the warnings 
of Jesus to our hearts — cure us of our thoughtless- 



208 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

ness — shame us out of our sins — break down our 
wicked pride — fill our souls with sorrow and prayer 
— and bow us in humble repentance at his dear 
feet ! Then shall we have new hearts, par- 
doned sins, sweet peace, hope of heaven, and a 
crown of glory. 



Death welcome in prospect of 
Heaven. 

There is a land of pure delight, 
Where saints immortal reign ; 

Infinite day excludes the night, 
And pleasures banish pain. 

There everlasting spring abides, 
And never withering flowers ; 

Death, like a narrow sea, divides 
This heavenly land from ours. 

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, 
Stand dressed in living green ; 

So to the Jews old Canaan stood, 
While Jordan rolled between. 

But timorous mortals start and shrink, 

To cross this narrow sea ; 
And linger shivering on the brink, 

And fear to launch away. 



REJOICING IN CHRIST. 209 

Oh ! could we make our doubts remove, 

Those gloomy doubts that rise, 
And see the Canaan that we love 

With unbeclouded eyes ; 

Could we but climb, where Moses stood, 
• And view the landscape o'er, 
Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, 
Should fright us from the shore. 



Rejoicing in Christ. 

Oh ! for a thousand tongues to sing 
My dear Redeemer's praise ; 

The glories of my God and King, 
The triumphs of his grace. 

My gracious Master and my God, 

Assist me to proclaim, 
To spread through all the earth abroad, 

The honours of thy name. 

Jesus, the name that calms our fears, 
That bids our sorrows cease ; 

'Tis music in the sinner's ears : 
'Tis life, and health, and peace. 

He breaks the power of reigning sin, 

He sets the prisoner free ; 
His blood can make the foulest clean ; 
His blood availed for me. 
18* 



SERMON XIII. 

LAST DAYS. 

" Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew 
that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world 
unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the 
world, he loved them unto the end." John xiii. 1. 

You have heard already how it was that the chief 
priests and scribes came to be so resolved that Je- 
sus should die — so resolved to kill him at this very 
feast ; it was because of the wonderful miracle he 
performed in raising Lazarus from the dead. Now 
we must find out how one of the Lord's chosen 
apostles came to betray him. It grew out of this 
same business of Lazarus. 

He and his two sisters made a feast for the Lord, 
to honour their kind and mighty friend. Lazarus 
sat at the table with Jesus ; and Martha stood by 
and waited on them. But where was Mary ? 
Surely not forgetful now of the Master she had loved 
so dearly before this last great kindness ? Oh no ; 
she came behind him, as he sat upon the couch at 
table, and poured a sweet and costly oil upon his 

(211) 



212 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

head. They were ready to own him as their king 
now, and she made haste to anoint him like a king. 
The sweet perfume filled the whole room, and made 
everybody notice what she had done. Some of 
the apostles were distressed, and even vexed, that 
she should spend so much money on such a thing, 
when she might have fed and comforted so many 
poor people with it. But they said nothing ; only 
one man spoke out sternly, and said — " Why was 
not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and 
given to the poor ?" This noisy friend of the poor 
was named Judas ; and he said this, "not that he 
cared for the poor, but because he was a thief.' ' 
He was the keeper of the money bag for Christ and 
his disciples, and used to steal from it : and he was 
enraged to think that money should be spent in 
such a way, that he could get none of it. 

But the Lord said nothing about Judas' wicked- 
ness then. He answered — " Let her alone ! why do 
you rebuke and pain her ? she hath done well. The 
poor are always here, but not I ! She hath done 
what she could : she hath come beforehand to 
anoint my body for the burying" She didn't mean 
that, but so it was. " Verily I say unto you, Where- 
soever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the 
whole world, this that she hath done shall be spoken 
of, for a memorial of her." 

Then Satan entered into Judas. He was mad 
against his Lord for rebuking him and taking 
Mary's part ; and he determined to get money from 



LAST DAYS. 213 

the priests and rulers, as he was disappointed about 
stealing it. Perhaps he expected Jesus to break 
out in great power and glory, and save himself. 
Perhaps, in his rage, he was willing to kill his Mas- 
ter and Friend. However that was, he went to the 
Lord's enemies, and said — " How much will you 
give me to betray him unto you ?" They agreed to 
give him thirty pieces of silver ; that was exactly 
what the prophet said they would give him, hun- 
dreds of years before Judas was born ! 

But this miserable man did not leave the company 
of Jesus and his disciples then. His heart was so 
hard and shameless that he could bear to stay with 
him, and look into his gracious face, and hear his 
holy words, while he was watching for a chance to 
give him up to his cruel enemies ! Do you think he 
was the vilest man that ever lived ? Ah, if God's 
grace had not kept us, you and I would have been 
just like Judas. Let us thank Him, and not be 
boastful. 

At last the day of the Passover arrived, and Je- 
sus sent two of his apostles into the city to make 
ready for them to eat that last supper with him. In 
the evening he and the others came in and sat down 
at the table. It seems that the twelve had gone 
back to their old folly of quarrelling about who 
should be the greatest man in the land, when Jesus 
Christ should take the kingdom. Each one wanted 
the place for himself ; and they were so full of this 
wordly ambition, that they couldn't understand what 



214 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

the Lord was always saying of his crucifixion and 
death. He had rebuked them, and taught them, and 
set them right about it a great many times. Now he 
determined to give them a lesson about it that they 
would never forget. 

He waited until the regular Passover supper was 
over: then he arose, gathered his long robes up 
about his waist as the servants did, took a towel and 
some water and began to wash their feet. He said 
not a word, and they were so astonished and per- 
plexed that they kept silence too. Perhaps he be- 
gan with John, or may be with Judas — who can 
tell ? but all was still until he came to Peter. He 
couldn't bear that his Master should do such a 
humbling service for him ; and he cried out, " Thou 
shalt never wash my feet!" But the Lord would 
not suffer even such disobedience as that ; he an- 
swered, " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in 
me." When Peter heard that, he changed his mind 
again, and prayed — " Lord, not my feet only, but also 
my hands and my head !" But Jesus told him. 
there was no need of that ; so when he had gone 
round the table, and washed all their feet, he came 
and sat down, and explained this strange thing to 
them. 

"Ye call me Master and Lord," he said, "and 
ye say well, for so I am. If I, then, your Master 
and Lord, wash your feet, ye ought to wash each 
other's feet. Instead of disputing, who shall be 
high in my kingdom, and who will be low down, ye 



LAST DAYS. 215 

ought to honour and help and uphold one another. 
Ye know these things already ; happy shall ye 
be, if ye do them." 

Presently our dear Saviour's face grew sorrowful 
again. He was " troubled in spirit, and testified, say- 
ing, ' Verily, verily I say unto you, one of you 
shall betray me V " Now the other apostles didn't 
know how wicked Judas was. They were amazed 
and shocked ; they looked at one another and 
wondered which of .them he could mean. Peter 
made a sign to John, who was close by our Lord, to 
ask him who it was. Now they had come to that 
part of the evening's feast, when the head of the 
family used to break bread, and dip it in the dish, 
and give it to those who were sitting at the table : 
and Jesus was so doing just then. 

And when John asked him in a low voice who 
was going to betray him, the Lord answered pri- 
vately — " It is he to whom I give this first piece of 
bread" — and then he gave it to Judas Iscariot. No 
doubt Judas understood what they were saying ; and 
instead of being ashamed and sorry, and falling down 
on his knees to confess his sins and beg Christ to 
forgive him, "Satan entered into him," andhe hated 
his Lord worse than ever. And when Jesus saw 
that, he couldn't bear the cruel and wicked traitor 
near him any more. He turned to him and said — 
u That thou doest, do quickly." Then Judas rose 
up and went out to betray his Master. The others 
didn't dream what Christ meant by those words, or 



216 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

what Judas went out for ; if they had, he would 
hardly have escaped out of that upper room alive. 
Little they thought that was the very last night 
they would ever spend with their Lord ! 

So Judas was gone, at last, and Jesus went on to 
another thing that the world will never forget. Yea, 
we shall remember it and keep it up in heaven ! I 
mean the Lord's supper. " Jesus took bread, and 
blessed it" — he gave thanks to God for it, and 
called down God's blessing on it. Then he broke 
it up and gave each of them a piece to eat ; and he 
said — " This is my body, broken for you ; this do 
in remembrance of me." Now you must remember 
that the apostles didn't understand this at all. They 
saw his sad face, and heard his strange and dread- 
ful words ; and they obeyed him, and ate the bread, 
with sorrow and wonder and perplexity. And so 
they drank the wine, too, as he bade them. " This 
cup," he said, "is the New Covenant in my blood, 
shed for the forgiveness of sins ; drink ye all 
of it." And they drank, and were sorely troubled 
in mind. 

But after the wonderful and awful history was 
over, and they could look back on it all, they saw 
what he meant. He was giving his very body and 
blood to save them, and get their sins pardoned. 
And he commanded them to break bread and pour 
the wine every little while, as long as they lived 
— and then the other believers after them, so that 
his churches every where should keep up the mem- 



LAST DAYS. 217 

ory of his wonderful and glorious love, and show 
forth his death until he comes again. For he will 
come, to judge the world, and to gather his blood- 
washed people to himself; then we shall no more 
need these emblems, for we shall have him to lead 
us and to crown us with glory. 

Then the Lord Jesus began to prepare them for 
the terrible events that were coming. tk Little 
children," he said, "it is only a little while more I 
shall be with you ; and then as I told the Jews — 
where I go you cannot come. Not yet ; but you 
shall come, after a time.' , And Peter answered, 
quick and earnest, " Lord, why cannot I follow thee 
now ? I will lay down my life for thy sake !" Yes, 
poor, weak-hearted Peter ! You will lay down your 
life for him, but not now." Wilt thou? said Christ: 
" verily I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, 
until thou hast denied me thrice !" 

What a terrible shock those words must have 
been ! There they had sat, disputing who should 
be the greatest, and flattering themselves that the 
days of their poverty and suffering were almost 
over, and then they would be rich and glorious, and 
reign like kings ; and now, all in a moment, their 
Master tells them that such fearful times have come 
on them, that very night, that one of the bravest of 
them will deny his Lord before midnight ! They 
had had mystery and sorrow and fear before ; but 
this comes like the burst of sudden thunder on their 
ears. They sat silent and overwhelmed, and looked 
19 



218 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

at him, and looked at each other in utter dis- 
may. 

Then Jesus began those last beautiful and holy 
counsels — " Let not your hearts be troubled — ye 
believe in God, believe also in me." Oh where 
would sorrowing Christians go for their best conso- 
lation, if those precious chapters were gone out of 
the Bible ! When our hearts grow weak and sad 
and discouraged ; when fear and trouble gather 
over us like thick clouds, that shut out the summer 
sun ; then we read those wise and solemn words, and 
rest on them. 

"You have been believing in God," our Saviour 
says ; " that was beginning in the right place; now 
trust me too. I have some happy news for you, 
if you'll only believe it. There are many mansions 
in my Father's house in heaven, and I'm going there 
now to get ready a place for you. That's the rea- 
son why you can't follow me now, I must go first, 
and get my people's heaven ready for them. If 
there was no room there for you, I would have told 
you. But if I go and make ready for you, I will 
come again and take you to myself, that ye may be 
where I am. 

" You know where I'm going, and what way I 
have to go." Some of them had begun to guess 
the truth, and believe it in spite of themselves; 
but not all. Thomas said, " Lord, we know not 
where thou art going, and how can we know the 
way ?" The Lord Jesus answered this question very 



LAST DATS. 219 

strangely; he answered it so that Thomas would 
hardly understand it then. But he would see that 
the Lord didn't mean a journey, or a warfare, but 
something more dark and solemn still. " I am the 
way and the truth and the life ; no man cometh unto 
the Father but by me." 

There was another one there that didn't under- 
stand ; that was Philip. He said — " Lord, show us 
the Father, and that will satisfy us and relieve our 
hearts." He wanted to see Grod, and walk by sight 
when Jesus was gone, just as he did while Jesus was 
there. But our Lord was teaching them to walk by 
faith, instead of sight. So he answered, " Have I 
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not 
known me, Philip ? He that has seen me, has seen 
the Father. The Father dwells in me, and does 
these great works. Believe me, on my word, that I 
am in the Father, and the Father in me ; or, if you 
can't believe my bare word, believe me because of 
these wonders and miracles that I do." 

Then our dear Saviour went on to promise them 
that if they would trust in him, they should do 
glorious miracles themselves ; and more even than 
that, whatever they asked the Father in his name, 
he would do it for them. 

He told them, too, that they should not be left as 
orphans, after he was gone." I will pray the 
Father, and he will send you another Comforter, 
that he may abide with you for ever ; and I also will 
come unto you." That other Comforter was the 



220 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Holy Spirit. The Lord kept that wonderful promise ; 
and when he ascended up to heaven, he sent down 
that blessed and mighty Spirit of God, to abide with 
his people always. Jesus himself had to go away ; 
but this heavenly Friend never leaves this dark and 
sinful world. You and I may drive him away from 
our hearts by wilful and stubborn sin ; but he is blessing 
some poor soul, and helping on Christ's church, all 
the time. 

And while they were talking of these things, they 
rose up from the table, and walked away to the 
Mount of Olives, and the little garden where Jesus 
often went to pray. Very likely, as they walked, 
they came upon a vine clambering up out of some 
yard to the windows, high overhead. Perhaps they 
could see where the master of the house had been 
pruning the branches and tilling the ground, to 
make his vine bear fruit. And Christ said, " I am 
the true vine, and my Father dresses it and takes 
care of it. I am the vine, and ye are the branches. 
Now if the branch is broken off, it dies and bears no 
fruit. No more can ye do anything, if you give me 
up and forget to trust in me. But if you do cleave 
to me, and bear fruit, you must expect to be pruned 
— to have afflictions and sorrows — to make you more 
fruitful. The more useful and fruitful you are, the 
more is my Father glorified : and if you glorify 
him I will love you. Continue ye in my love ! 

" You know how the world has hated me ; and 
you must not be astonished or dissappointed if it 



LAST BAYS. 221 

hates you also. They will persecute you and put 
you out of the synagogues ; yea, the time comes when 
whoever kills you will think that he is serving God. 
In this world you shall have tribulation ; but let not 
your courage fail — for I have conquered the world." 

And then lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus 
prayed for his chosen ones. It was the last prayer 
he offered for them in this world. He prayed after 
this for himself in his awful agony — and for the 
cruel men that nailed him to the cross ; but this was 
his last supplication for his people on this side of the 
grave. But in heaven, he ever liveth to make inter- 
cession for them. 

For what did he pray, in the last solemn hour ? 
First, that his Father would take him back into the 
heavenly glory, now that he had finished the work 
he had to do on the earth — take him safely through 
his agony and death to his throne and joy on high. 
But do you say that was praying for himself? So 
it was, in part ; but it was for them too. For where 
would be their heaven, if Jesus wasn't glorified ? 

Then he besought his Father to keep his people 
safely for him, and bring them home to heaven. 
He prayed that God would keep them out of Satan's 
power, and make them holy, by teaching them his 
word, and by his Spirit. And then, oh how 
earnestly he prayed that his people might love one 
another, and live at peace, and be one people ! And 
how terrible it is to see those who call themselves 
Christians so full of grudges and quarrels, bitter 
19* 



222 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

words and heart-burnings, when their Lord that died 
for them, plead so hard that they might be peaceful 
and tender-hearted and forgiving ! 

And last of all, he offered this request — " Father, 
I will that they whom thou hast given me be with 
me where I am, that they may behold my glory 
which thou hast given me." Yea, Lord — let every 
Christian say — let us see thy glory, and be with 
thee where thou art ! That will be heaven itself. 

I suppose our Lord must have been standing close 
by the wall of the city, in the very shadow of it, 
while he was praying; and his disciples were 
gathered close round him — listening and wondering 
and sorrowing. When he had finished, they went 
on, over the little brook Kedron, and walked up the 
hill a little way to the gate of the Garden of Geth- 
semane. There he left all his apostles except 
Peter and James and John. They went in under 
the olive trees ; and then he said, " My soul is ex- 
ceeding sorrowful, even unto death. ' ' Groans began 
to break out of his heart ; anguish and trembling 
laid hold of him. The awful wrath of God began 
to fall on him, all holy as he was ; for he was to 
bear our sins, and be bruised for our iniquities. 
" Tarry ye here and watch," he said, " while I go 
yonder and pray." And he went about a stone's 
throw farther, into the darkest part of the garden, 
and there threw himself down on his face and 
wrestled in dreadful agonies of prayer. And the 
cry that he lifted up again and again and again, for 



LAST DAYS. 223 

nearly an hour, was — " Father, if it be possible, let 
this cup pass from me ! nevertheless, not my will, 
but thine, be done." And the dreadful anguish of 
his spirit brought out great drops of bloody sweat 
on his forehead, which fell on the ground. 

The Scriptures don't tell us plainly what cup it 
was the Lord Jesus dreaded so much ; but Paul says 
that he was heard and answered about what he 
feared; and we know that at last an angel from 
heaven appeared and strengthened him. Perhaps 
he was afraid that his human soul would give way, 
in the terrible sufferings he had to bear, and not 
endure perfectly his Father's will. And he shud- 
dered at the very thought of such a disaster. It 
would have ruined our salvation, and turned all that 
wonderful story to nothing. 

Oh, well might Peter and John and the rest have 
wept and prayed and wrestled, if they had dreamed 
what was going on so close to them ! And how did 
they spend the time in that tremendous moment, 
when heaven and hell trembled in expectation over 
Christ's agony ? How did they wait and watch for 
Jesus, when deadly fear sickened his heart, and 
clouds and thunder and awful darkness closed over 
him ? They were asleep ! 

Again our Lord went back, after waking them 
and rebuking them — went back to pray and suffer; 
and again they slept. Once more he warned them, 
and entreated that they would watch ; but all in 
vain. They were weary and sad, and sleep prevailed 



224 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

over them the third time. Vain was the help of 
man, in Christ's distress ; but he had not even the 
comfort of one wakeful, sympathizing friend. But 
this wasn't the worst. 

While he sat by them in the dark, and let them 
rest, Jesus heard the clash of armed men, and saw 
the torches of those who were coming to take him. 
And he called aloud — " Rise up ! let us go ! behold, 
he that has betrayed me is come !" Then the three 
sleeping ones, and those who were waiting by the 
gate, sprung up and ran together, frightened and 
bewildered, not knowing what it all meant. Jesus 
sat quietly, till Judas came up first, and gave the 
soldiers the sign he had promised — he came up to 
his Master and Friend — oh shame and woe ! saying, 
Hail Master ! and kissed him. Still our dear Lord 
sat there, only answering, " Judas, betrayest thou 
the Son of man with a kiss ?" 

But as the soldiers drew near, he rose up and 
went out to meet them, and said, u Whom seek ye?" 
They answered, " Jesus of Nazareth." Then said 
Christ, "I am he;" and in a moment they drew 
back and fell on the ground. They remembered his 
mighty power, and almost expected that he would 
destroy them. But his hour was come, as he said. 
He only asked them to let the apostles go ; and 
then he gave himself up to them, and they bound 
him, and led him away. 

This was the way those glorious three years of 
preaching and wonder-working came to an end. His 



SALVATION BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. 225 

own countrymen plotted to kill him : one of his 
twelve chosen ones betrayed him ; and the rest for- 
sook him and fled ! Those blessed hands, that never 
struck a blow — that were never stretched out but 
to heal men, or teach them, or forgive them, or pray 
for them — were tied together with cords. That 
gentle voice, that taught Mary, and comforted the 
childless widow, and sung hymns with sinful men to 
God their Father, was drowned now by the shouts 
and curses of the crowd. 

If any man thinks that we can work out a religion 
for ourselves, or that men love good things and a 
good God, just out of our own hearts, let him remember 
how they treated our dear Lord, who had lived all 
those years with him. If his love, and his wisdom, 
and the sight of his mighty power, left men so blind 
and wicked as this, surely you and I must be saved 
by the hand of God, or we shall be lost. 



Salvation by the Blood of the 

Lamb. 

There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from Immanuers veins : 

And sinners plunged beneath that flood 
Lose all their guilty stains. 

The dying thief rejoiced to see 

That fountain in his day ; 
And there may I, though vile as he, 

Wash all my sins away. 



226 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood 

Shall never lose its power, 
Till all the ransomed church of God 

Be saved to sin no more. 

E'er since by faith I saw the stream, 

Thy flowing wounds supply, 
Redeeming love has been my theme, 

And shall be till I die. 

Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, 

I'll sing thy power to save ; 
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue 

Lies silent in the grave. 



Crucifixion by the Cross 

When I survey the wondrous cross, 
On which the Prince of glory died, 

My richest gain I count but loss, 
And pour contempt on all my pride. 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, 
Save in the death of Christ my God ; 

All the vain things that charm me most, 
I sacrifice them to his blood. 

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, 
Sorrow and love flow mingled down ; 

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, 
Or thorns compose so rich a crown ? 



CRUCIFIXION BY THE CROSS. 227 

His dying crimson, like a robe, 
Spreads o'er his body on the tree ; 

Then am I dead to all the globe, 
And all the globe is dead to me. 

Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small ; 

Love so amazing, so divine, 

Demands my soul, my life, my all. 



SERMON XIV. 

TRIAL AND DEATH. 

" All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned 
every one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on him 
the iniquity of us all." " Surely he hath borne our griefs, 
and carried our sorrows !" — Is. liii. 4, 6. 

When the Lord Jesus went from the city to the 
garden it was about twilight ; but when the soldiers 
seized him and carried him back, it was deep dark 
night. It was no pleasant walk, with loving friends 
all around him to lean upon, this time ! He was 
dragged and pushed this way and thlt, with his 
hands bound fast, down the rough path, and up the 
crooked streets, to the house of Annas. No doubt 
he was the ringleader in the whole plot, but he wasn't 
high priest any longer ; so he hurried him off to Caia- 
phas, his son-in-law, who was the high priest that year. 

There they kept him till daybreak — his chief 
enemies being all met there together — asking hinf 
questions to make him accuse himself, and trying 
to hire false witnesses to accuse him. But he an- 
swered nothing, and the witnesses disagreed so much 
20 (229) 



230 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

that they couldn't make any use of their witness. 
All their scheming came to nothing, until the high 
priest called on Jesus with a solemn oath, as the law 
commanded — "I adjure thee by the living God, 
that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son 
of God?" Then our Saviour spoke out, and said, 
" Yes, I am the Christ ! and ye shall see the Son of 
Man coming in the clouds of heaven." 

Then the high priest tore open his robes, as if 
he was dreadfully shocked and grieved at such lan- 
guage. He cried out — " He has spoken blasphemy ! 
What think ye all?" They answered, "He de- 
serves to die." So they proved no crime at all on 
the Lord Jesus, even by false witnesses, only that he 
said he was our Saviour and our Judge. 

While all this was going on, John and Peter had 
partly got over their fright, and come quietly into 
the high priest's house, "to see the end." On the 
stone floor, in the middle of the great hall, the ser- 
vants and *e soldiers had built a fire, because the 
night was so chilly and dark ; and there these two 
sat down and warmed themselves. One of the ser- 
vant-girls, looking at Peter, said, — " Thou wast also 
with Jesus of Galilee ;" and in haste he answered, 
" No : I don't know the man." Again one of them 
said, " This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth;" 
"but he denied it with an oath, saying, " I know not 
the man." Soon they all came around him, and 
said, " Surely thou art one of them ; thy speech 
betrays thee ; thou art a Galilean, like Jesus." 



TRIAL AND DEATH. 231 

Then he began to curse and to swear that he didn't 
know his own dear Lord ! But in the midst of it all, 
the cock crew, and Jesus turned and looked on 
Peter. Then he remembered his Master's word — 
" Before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice. ,, 
And when he thought of all his boasting and all his 
sin, he went out and wept bitterly. 

The Lord had said to him — " Simon, Simon, 
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift 
you as wheat ; but I have prayed for thee, that thy 
faith fail not." And now, by his own rashness 
and foolish pride, Satan had prevailed over him, and 
his faith had failed ! Oh how he must have despised 
himself, as he looked back on all his Master's 
tenderness and wisdom — all the blessings he 
had received from him — and all the promises and 
professions he had made ! You see privileges won't 
save anybody. Capernaum, that was exalted to 
heaven, was cast down at last to hell. And 
Peter, who went with Jesus when he raised the 
little maiden from the dead; who was on 
the Mount when Jesus,, was transfigured ; who was 
under the olive trees in the time of his agony — 
Peter not only denied his Lord, but blasphemed 
loud and long in Jesus' very presence, that they might 
see and know that he had nothing to do with him ! 
But Peter repented and was forgiven. Oh the 
riches of his long suffering and patience ! 

It seems that this sinning and repenting apostle 
was ashamed to look his Lord in the face, after what 



232 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

he had done, and we hear no more of him till the 
resurrection. But all this time the priests and 
scribes were studying and contriving how they could 
accuse Jesus to the Romans, so that they would kill 
him. The Jews couldn't execute a prisoner them- 
selves ; the Romans wouldn't let them. And be- 
sides, they wanted the Lord to be put to the most 
shameful death they could find, so that nobody 
might respect him or honour him after he was 
dead. 

At last they decided what to do ; so they bound 
his sacred hands again, and sent him away to Pilate, 
the Roman Governor. This was about daybreak 
in the morning ; and they meant to follow him in a 
very little while. But Judas stopped them. He 
had been watching secretly what was going on; and 
when he found that Jesus was really condemned 
and sent to Pilate to die, his conscience woke up at 
last. He took the money they had paid him, 
the thirty pieces of silver, and went to them to buy 
back his Lord. "I have sinned" — he said, "I 
have betrayed innocent blood,!" But they mocked 
him— u What have we to do with that? That is 
your concern." Ah, it was too late then to save Je- 
sus from the hands of his enemies! And in his 
despair and anguish of soul, poor lost Judas dashed 
down the money on the Temple floor, and went and 
hung himself. 

Now you see the difference between repentance 
and remorse. Peter repented and lived on to serve his 



TRIAL AND DEATH. 233 

Master ; Judas suffered as much, may be, as Peter, 
or even more ; but he was too blind and unbeliev- 
ing to turn to his God and be forgiven ; so he laid 
violent hands on his own life, and went down to his 
ruin ! 

Then these priests, that didn't shrink from mur- 
dering an innocent man and a mighty prophet, like 
Jesus, couldn't put back this blood-money into the 
treasury. So they bought a field with it, called the 
Potter's Field, to bury strangers in. Just as the 
ancient prophet said they would hundreds of years 
before ! But the people remembered how the 
field was bought ; and instead of calling it the 
Potter's Field, they called it the Field of Blood. 

Now those that carried Jesus to Pilate wouldn't 
go into his Judgment Hall themselves, because then 
they couldn't join in the sacrifices ; but they sent him 
in, and waited outside for the Governor. And they 
sent him word that this was the man that called 
himself King of the Jews. Then Pilate came out 
and arranged his court to try Jesus in an open 
paved yard, where the Jews could come. True 
Pharisees ! willing enough to persecute and kill ; 
but they couldn't bear to be " unclean," as they 
called it, at the Passover ! 

When Pilate asked Jesus, " Art thou the King 
of the Jews ?" he said, " Thou sayest it :" that is, 
It is even so. Then the chief priests and scribes 
came on from the Temple and accused him, and he 
answered not a word. Pilate said — " Hearest thou 
20* 



234 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

not what they say against thee?" And still he 
kept perfect silence ; so that Pilate wondered at it. 
Presently he took Jesus away from them all, and 
asked him secretly if he was a King. Our Lord 
said, " My kingdom is not of this world, else would 
my servants fight." So Pilate brought him back, 
and declared before all the people and all the rulers 

— U I FIND NO FAULT IN HIM AT ALL." So when 

the Jews tried him, they couldn't make an accusa- 
tion against him, except that he claimed to be our 
Saviour ; and when the Romans tried him, they found 
no fault in him. 

Now it was the custom to let the Jews choose a 
prisoner out of the Roman jail, to be set free at the 
passover. And Pilate, hoping that the common 
people would be glad to save Christ's life, gave them 
their choice — Jesus, or Barabbas. But alas ! their 
hearts were blinded and hardened now ; and they 
chose the robber and murderer to live, and left their 
holy and mighty Friend to die ! 

Again the governor tried to save Jesus. He took 
him and scourged him : bound him to one of the 
pillars, and made the soldiers take a whip that had 
pieces of lead plaited into the lash, and scourge him 
with that. It was a terrible punishment ; men often 
died with the scourging ; but our dear Master said 
not a word. They " bared his back to the smiters ;" 
but " as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he 
opened not his mouth." The soldiers made a crown 
out of some thorny plant, and fastened it on his 



TRIAL AND DEATH. 235 

head, and put a splendid robe on him to mock him. 
Then Pilate brought him out, bleeding and faint, 
and dressed so cruelly, and said, "Behold him!" 
But they cried out fiercely, " Away with him ! 
Away with him ! Crucify him ! crucify him !" 
" What !" said Pilate— " shall I crucify your king ?" 
They answered, "We have no king but Cesar. " 
They would rather own the heathen for their masters, 
than the Lord Jesus for their Saviour. 

The more Pilate thought about it, the more afraid 
and sorry he was to take the life of Jesus. His 
wife sent and begged him to spare that good man, 
as she called him. The Jews told him that Christ 
called himself the Son of God. But he hadn't the 
noble courage to do right and leave the consequences 
to God. He sent Jesus to King Herod, who was 
there, in Jerusalem then, hoping that he would settle 
the cause for him ; but Herod mocked Jesus and sent 
him back to Pilate again. Then he took water, and 
washed his hands before all the Jews, saying, " I am 
innocent of the blood of this just person." And in 
their blind rage they agreed to that, too. They 
answered, " His blood be on us, and on our children !" 

And so the Lord Jesus was condemned to be 
crucified, for nothing but this — that he declared he 
was our Saviour. Remember that ! 

But what is this "crucifying?" Why, they 
placed the wooden cross on the ground, and laid our 
Lord on it, w r ith his arms stretched out on the 
cross-piece, and his feet fastened together. Then 



236 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

they nailed his dear hands and his feet to the cross. 
Then they lifted it all up together, and planted it 
in a hole or socket in the rock. When they dropped 
the foot of the cross into this socket, it gave a 
dreadful wrench to the wounded hands. That made 
the poor sufferers scream often, with agony. Our 
Redeemer cried out then, too ; but it was, " Father, 
forgive them ! they know not what they are doing !" 
That was the way he paid them back for his awful 
pain. 

But he wasn't alone in his anguish on Calvary 
that day. There were two thieves crucified with 
him. And while the priests and Pharisees were 
mocking him, they joined in and derided him. But 
Jesus said nothing — bore it all silently and patiently. 
Soon one of the thieves broke off from that cruel 
mocking, and rebuked the other one for what he 
said. Then he turned to the Lord and said, " Lord, 
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom/ ' 
And our gracious Master forgave all his sins, and 
answered, out of all his dying distress — " Verily I 
say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with me in 
Paradise !" 

But who is this woman, weeping so bitterly at the 
foot of the cross ? Ah poor Mary ! you remember 
now what old Simeon said, thirty years ago, when 
that dying Jesus was a little baby in your arms — 
" Yea, and a sword shall pierce through thine own 
soul also !" Jesus looked down on her, and on John 
who was close by, and told her to take John for her 



TRIAL AND DEATH. 237 

son, now he was gone ; and told John to take care 
of her as if she was his mother. And when it was 
all over, John took her home with him ; and she 
lived out the rest of her sorrowful life there. 

Now a dreadful darkness began to gather over 
all the land — neither sun, nor moon, nor stars would 
shine when Jesus was dying. But a more bitter 
and awful darkness was in his heart ; for God, his 
Father, withdrew from him, and left him to groan 
and die like a sinner ! This woe had been coming 
on ever since he went to the garden of Gethsemane; 
but now it was worse and deeper than ever. There 
in the pitchy darkness, cruel pains gnawing his 
frame, and Satan pouring wicked thoughts and 
temptations into his ear — -there God left him to 
groan and die all alone. Ah, he promised us not 
to leave us orphans ; but in his terrible time of need 
he was left orphan himself, and robbed of his eter- 
nal Father's gracious arm and glorious smile. No 
wonder his heart broke at last, as he cried, " My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

For three long hours that mortal agony went on 
in the dark ; then Jesus cried out with a loud voice 
— " It is finished !" Oh what a victory was in that 
word ! All his mighty work was done, and the 
dreadful curse of the law was borne and finished, 
and his glorious rest could begin. When he said, 
"It is finished,'' he died. In a moment the earth 
heaved and shook, and with a crash like wildest 
thunder, the rocks on Calvary, and the cliffs of the 



238 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

mountains, Burst open. Dead men sprang up out 
of their grave clothes, and came to life ; and at 
last escaped out of their tombs, after he rose from 
the dead, and came to Jerusalem, where many peo- 
ple saw them. The great curtain in the temple, 
that divided the Holy Place from the Most Holy, 
was torn in two- That showed that it wasn't God's 
home any more, and that the true temple now was 
to be in heaven. 

And as the people heard and felt these mighty 
wonders in the darkness, they beat their breasts in 
terror, and the heathen captain of the guard said, 
" Surely this was the Son of God !" When the 
sun began to shine again, Pilate sent out word to 
kill those crucified men, because the next day was 
the Jews' Sabbath. But when the soldiers came to 
Jesus, they found he was already dead ; but to make 
sure, they pierced his side with a spear, so that blood 
and water poured out on the ground. So our dear 
Lord had both lived and died for poor sinners. 

sacred Head thus wounded, 

With grief and pain weighed down ! 
How scornfully surrounded, 

With thorns thine only crown ! 
sacred Head, what glory — 

What bliss, till now, was thine ! 
Yet, though despised and gory, 

I joy to call thee mine. 

How art thou pale with anguish, 

With sore abuse and scorn ! 
How does that visage languish, 

Which once was bright as morn ! 



TRIAL AND DEATH. 239 

Thy grief and thy compassion 

Were all for sinners' gain : 
Mine, mine was the transgression, 

But thine the deadly pain ! 

What language can I borrow 

To praise thee, heavenly Friend, 
For this thy dying sorrow, 

Thy pity without end ? 
Lord, make me thine for ever, 

Nor let me faithless prove ! 
Oh let me never, never, 

Abuse such dying love ! 

Now Joseph, a rich man, and Nicodemus, the 
ruler, who had believed on the Lord secretly, and 
with faint hearts, while he lived and had many 
friends, grew brave, now that he was dead and al- 
most everybody had forsaken him. Joseph went 
boldly to Pilate, and asked leave to take the body 
of Jesus down from the cross and bury it. Then 
he bought fine clean, linen, cloth, and Nicodemus 
bought a hundred pounds weight of spices. And 
they went to the cross and took down the dear " bro- 
ken body" from the nails by which it hung, and 
wound it up with the spices in the linen cloth. That 
was the way the Jews prepared a body for burying. 
There were other such things they meant to do ; but 
it was nearly sundown now, and at sunset the Sab- 
bath began. So they carried the body, wrapped 
up as it was, and laid it in Joseph's new tomb, that 
he had dug out of the solid rock for himself. 
Nobody had ever been buried there yet. So he 



240 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

died with the wicked thieves, and was buried in the 
rich man's grave, as the prophet had said. 

Then Joseph and Nicodemus rolled a great stone 
to the door, and departed. But in the Sabbath 
twilight, there sat Mary, his mother, and Salome, 
John's mother, and Mary Magdalene, weeping by 
the still and solemn grave. 

For — if you have listened to all I've been telling 
you — you can see how perplexed and despairing, as 
well as sorrowful, all Jesus' friends must have been. 
They wouldn't believe or understand that he really 
was to die. And they couldn't make anything of 
these terrible events, but that the Pharises had con- 
quered Christ. They were completely staggered 
and overcome. They said — " We had hoped that 
it was he that should redeem Israel." That shows 
you that they had nearly, or quite, given up that 
hope. So they thought they had lost their Friend, 
and their King, and their Saviour, all at one blow ! 
No wonder they met together to weep and pray and 
consult together, and contrive what they should do 
after such an overwhelming disappointment. 

But our Lord had given them one positive com- 
mand before he died — u Tarry ye here in Jerusalem." 
And even in their woe and despair, his word was 
sacred with them. They couldn't imagine what it 
meant ; they didn't know what they were waiting for ; 
but even then his wish was law to them. What 
beautiful faithfulness ! And how richly they were 
repaid for it, on that happy morning when he burst 



TRIAL AND DEATH. 241 

the bars of death, and rose victorious out of his 
grave ! For you know the Lord did rise from the 
dead, as he had promised them, to die no more. If 
they had forgotten his commandment, or disobeyed 
it, and left Jerusalem, they would never have seen 
their Lord again. 

As it was, they were all assembled together, Sun- 
day night, with the doors shut for fear of the Jews. 
And the Lord Jesus, that they had heard about in 
the morning, but couldn't believe in, suddenly stood 
among them, and said — " Peace be unto you !" 

I have told you the story of the resurrection be- 
fore ;* how the disciples could not believe for joy, 
at first, but finally confessed that it was he indeed, 
and clung to him as their Master and Saviour once 
more. Like old Jacob, when he found that Joseph 
was indeed alive, their heart fainted, and there was 
no more strength left in them. But he cheered and 
taught and blessed them once more, and convinced 
them that he had kept his largest promises, and 
" risen again for our justification.' ' 

Do you know what that means ? " Justification" 
is taking us back to be (rod's servants and G-od's 
children once more, after all our wickedness. Now 
when our Lord rose from the dead, he showed that 
he was a perfect Saviour, that God received his 
blood as our ransom, and was well pleased with the 
work that Christ had done. So we who believe on 
* Sermon V., Plantation Sermons, 1st Series. 
21 



242 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

him are justified freely by his grace — God bearing 
witness that it is so, by raising him from the dead. 
Now, therefore, let all men know assuredly that 
God hath made this Jesus, who was crucified, both 
Lord and Christ. Through his name forgiveness 
of sins is preached to every one that believeth. 
Neither is there any other name given under heaven 
whereby men can be saved. 



Repentance at the Cross 

Alas ! and did my Saviour bleed, 
And did my Sovereign die ? 

Would he devote that sacred head 
For such a worm as I ? 

Thy body slain, dear Jesus, thine, 
And bathed in its own blood, 

While all exposed to wrath divine, 
The glorious sufferer stood. 

Was it for crimes that I had done, 
He groaned upon the tree ? 

Amazing pity ! grace unknown ! 
And love beyond degree ! 

Well might the sun in darkness hide, 

And shut his glories in, 
When God, the mighty Maker, died, 

For man, the creature's sin. 



RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 243 

Thus might I hide my blushing face, 

While his dear cross appears, 
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, 

And melt my eyes to tears. 
But drops of grief can ne'er repay 

The debt of love I owe : 
Here, Lord, I give myself away ; 

'Tis all that I can do. 



The Resurrection and Ascension 
of Christ. 

Hosanna to the Prince of light, 

That clothed himself in clay ; 
Entered the iron gates of death, 

And tore the bars away. 

Death is no more the king of dread, 

Since our Immanuel rose ; 
He took the tyrant's sting away, 

And spoiled our hellish foes. 

See how the Conqueror mounts aloft, 

And to his Father flies, 
With scars of honour in his flesh, 

And triumph in his eyes. 

There our exalted Saviour reigns, 

And scatters blessings down; 
Our Jesus fills the middle seat 

Of the celestial throne. 



244 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Raise your devotion, mortal tongues, 

To reach his blest abode : 
Sweet be the accents of your songs, 
_ To our incarnate God. 

Bright angels, strike your loudest strings, 

Your sweetest voices raise ; 
Let heaven and all created things 

Sound our Immanuers praise. 






SERMON XV. 

HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN. 

" This same Jesus — " Acts i. 11. 

The Lord Jesus spent forty days on the earth 
after he rose from the dead ; but the Bible doesn't 
tell us where and how he passed all that time, or 
even half of it. It only shows him to us a few times, 
when he met the apostles, or some of the disciples, 
and repeats some of the " gracious words that pro- 
ceeded out of his mouth." In truth, he did not 
spend much of the time with them, but appeared 
and blessed, and taught, a little while, and then 
vanished out of their sight. And you can easily 
see, by the way the Gospels speak, that there was 
more dignity and reverence about him than ever 
before. We don't hear of John's head lying upon 
the Lord's breast, nor of his taking even a little 
child into his arms. There was a certain loftiness 
and awe about him, since he had conquered death 
and hell. As you might suppose a king's son might 
change, when he became a king. He wouldn't for- 
21* (245) 



246 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

get his old friends, or cast them off; but they would 
surely feel that he was "exalted" and look up to 
him more than ever. 

So it was with our Lord. He had gone patiently 
through all the days of his lowliness ; he had " hum- 
bled himself," even to the death of the cross; and 
now he was going to ascend " far above all prin- 
cipality and power and might and dominion ; and 
every name that is named not only in this world, but 
in that which is to come." "All things" were to 
be put under his feet ! And they might well begin 
to learn the lesson of awe and reverence, which it 
is the joy of his ransomed people to practise in 
heaven ! 

When these forty days were over, he led his 
followers out from Jerusalem as far as Bethany — 
no doubt it was to bless Mary and Martha and 
Lazarus once more — and then back to the Mount 
of Olives. I suppose his manner showed them that 
something new and great was to be done then. And 
they asked him eagerly — " Lord, wilt thou at this 
time restore the kingdom to Israel ?" They could 
not give up that vain and foolish notion, as long as 
the Lord Jesus was on the earth. But he only 
answered, that it wasn't for them to know the times 
and seasons — they were in the Father's power. 
Then he told them that God had promised to send 
the Holy Spirit upon them, and they must wait in 
Jerusalem until he, the Holy Spirit, came. When 
he had visited them, they would be ready for their 



HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN. 247 

work. They should be the witnesses of Jesus all 
over their country, and to the uttermost parts of 
the earth. 

And now he stretches out his hands to bless them 
as he used to do in the happy days that will never, 
never return on earth. They bow humbly before 
him, and look earnestly at him. But behold, they 
have to raise their eyes higher and higher — he isn't 
standing on the ground any longer — he is floating 
away ! up — up — soaring now swiftly into that splen- 
did cloud yonder ! Now he is lost in it, and the 
cloud is flying up into the very heavens. " Farewell, 
dear Master ! farewell, Lord of glory ! our weeping 
eyes will see thee no more ! Now are we orphans 
indeed !" 

They were watching that bright cloud so earnestly, 
that they didn't see the two angels at their side, 
until they spoke to them. "Ye men of Galilee, 
why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same 
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go 
into heaven. " 

" This same Jesus !" wasn't that the very word of 
consolation they wanted ? It told them that he at 
least, was a friend that heaven itself couldn't change. 
Other friends change as fast as the moon, or the 
wind ; other friends are ashamed of us in trouble, 
or afraid of us when happier days begin to shine : 
but Jesus is " the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
ever !" 



248 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Let us look back a little now, and see what kind 
of Jesus they had found him. Then we shall know 
some of the hopes that the angels put in their hearts, 
that day. When they remembered what he had 
been, and what he had done, they could cheer their 
hearts in fear and trouble, by thinking he was the 
same strong and gracious Friend still. Yes, even 
when they had fallen into sin, and were cut to the 
heart with shame, they could look back to his pity 
and his patience, and humbly rejoice, and smile 
through their tears, as they thought of this very 
same Jesus forgiving and healing sinners. 

They had beheld his power. Think of that sultry 
summer afternoon, when the twelve took a boat to 
cross the Sea of Galilee, and carry him on to his 
work. Their weary Master took a pillow and lay 
down to sleep, and they rowed cheerfully on. Pres- 
ently the clouds gathered swift and dark ; the wind 
blew in sharp gusts ; the face of the sun was hid ; 
the thunders chased one another over the black sky. 
Soon the quiet sea began to heave ; the foamy waves 
beat higher and higher, and tossed the boat this way 
and that. Larger and wilder rolled the waves as 
the wind whistled and roared; their boat settled down, 
deeper and deeper ; until the water began to pour 
in, and they were just ready to sink. But Jesus 
slept on : why should he be afraid ? 

Then they threw down their oars in despair, and 
ran to him — " Master, master, carest thou not that 
zve perish ? It may be safe for thee, but we shall 



HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN. 249 

die." Then he awoke, as quietly as he had slept ; 
he looked about hirn as the storm raved on, and saw 
just how wild and terrible it was. Then at last he 
spoke — " Peace ! be still !" Oh what manner of 
man is this ? Where are the rushing waters, and 
the blazing clouds, and the mighty wind ? Gone — 
all gone to rest ! There was a great calm. The 
boat glided gently along ; and behold, " He bringeth 
them to the desired haven/' The power of Jesus 
had saved them with a word. 

Or see him touch the eyes of the blind man ; 
they open, and he sees all things clearly. Hear 
him command the fever of a man dying in another 
town, miles away ; that selfsame hour the fever left 
him. He stands by the rocky tomb of Lazarus ; 
Mary and Martha fear to have the stone taken away 
from the door, because their brother's body has 
been decaying so long ; but because Jesus wept 
for him, and asked to have it so, they rolled away 
the stone. He doesn't go in and take hold of him, 
or pray and stretch himself upon the body, like the 
prophet Elisha. But he said with a loud, command- 
ing voice — " Lazarus, come forth !" That was all, 
and that was enough. He that was dead rose 
up, and came forth alive and well ! They had 
seen his power then, while he lived; and they 
rejoice as they remember that he is the same Jesus 
still. 

They had adored his ivisdom. How exactly right 
he treated everybody ! He didn't judge as men 



250 PLANTATION SERMONS. 



* 



did ; they mocked at his ways and thoughts, very 
often. The Pharises thought he couldn't be a pro- 
phet, becanse he let that great sinner, Mary Mag- 
dalene, kneel near him, and weep, and wipe his feet 
with her hair. The woman that had an issue of 
blood thought she could touch him and not be found 
out. The scribes and lawyers thought they could 
puzzle and tempt and ruin him by their questions. 
Even his mother thought he was losing a fine op- 
portunity to show the people his glory, and begin 
his course as the Messiah. But he was always 
right, and they were all wrong. He cast seven de- 
vils out of Mary Magdalene by his wisdom and kind- 
ness, and made her a brave, holy woman. He 
brought the sick woman to confess her faith, and 
then healed her thoroughly, soul and body. He an- 
swered the scribes' questions so wisely, that they 
never dared to ask him any more. And he taught 
his mother that his hour, and his plan, and his 
chosen work, were infinitely better and more glor- 
ious than what she had dreamed of. 

Then his teachings ; how wise and deep they 
were ! Look at his parables — why, there isn't one 
of them that the wisest men in the world could im- 
prove — no, nor one that the wisest men will ever get 
all the meaning out of, either ! The deeper you go, 
the more meaning you find in every one of them — 
the more noble and true it seems. Never, indeed, 
did man speak like this man. He never made a 
mistake — never had to undo anything he had done 



HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN. 251 

— to confess that he was wrong, or hasty, or foolish 
— never once. He was hated and tempted ; he had 
cunning enemies and foolish friends, — yes, and false 
friends! But he "knew what was in man;" he 
said and did just the right thing at the right time 
and place ; and he brought all his gracious purpo- 
ses to pass, at the very time he meant to do it. So 
his disciples knew that this same Jesus would reign 
on, victorious and happy, wherever he was — 
that all his threatenings and promises and prophe- 
sies would come true in good time, and that 
when he returned to them, they would adore his 
wisdom more than ever. 

More than all, they had tasted his love. They 
knew that he had come into this world to seek and to 
save lost sinners, and they had seen him do it. He 
called Mary Magdalene, " daughter," and bade her 
go in peace, for her sins were forgiven. He went 
about, doing good — using his almighty power so 
tenderly and graciously that even the thankless peo- 
ple wondered, and said, " He hath done all things 
well." He loved his own unto the end ; forgave the 
twelve for forsaking him, and Peter for denying 
him ; prayed for his murderers ; took the dying 
thief to heaven with him : laid down his life for vile 
sinners. When they thought of the tender words 
he spoke on that dreadful night — how he taught and 
comforted them, and how he prayed for them — it 
thrilled their very hearts to see how Jesus died lov- 



252 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

ing them, and rose again loving them, and went up 
to heaven loving them. 

" So then," they would think, " our Lord has gath- 
ered all his mighty power into hishands,and his glo- 
rious wisdom lives in his mind, and his matchless 
love reigns in his heart ! He has gone up into his 
glory ; but he is our Lord Jesus still. Oh how our 
poor lonely hearts will hunger to see him again ! 
We have so many things to learn of him — all our 
fears and unbelief to confess — all our wants to 
spread before him ; but we shall see him no more 
for many weary days. So it must be ! But then in 
all that time he will not change. He will love us 
still, watch over us still, bless and preserve us still. 
And when our longing hearts can hold out no more ; 
when we have worn out these poor bodies, doing his 
will on the earth ; he will come — oh he will come, and 
take us to himself. Lord help us to wait patiently !" 

Let us now consider how we can " comfort our 
hearts with these words. ' ' Who was it, brother Chris- 
tian, who was it that visited you in your days of 
conviction ? Ah, well you remember that sorrowful 
time ! You had found out that you were a sinner 
against a holy, just, and jealous God. All your 
transgressions rose up before your thoughts, as the 
clouds roll up and shut out the sun, on the wings 
of rushing winds. You trembled and wept, 
and tried to pray. Some sins you made ex- 
cuses for ; some you owned ; but oh how many you 
didn't dare to name, or even think of ! God looked 



HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN. 253 

so pure and good, and yet so angry, you wondered 
at his glory, but you beat your breast and shud- 
dered with fear and woe. That awful law of God 
— how it thundered over you, like Mount Sinai ! The 
grave that was waiting for you — it was a little place 
to look at, but hell seemed to be burning just under 
it ! There was no goodness left in your life, and 
death could only bring you to endless woe. 

Who was it, now, that broke in on that terrible 
gloom ? Who was in the boat with you, as with the 
twelve in Galilee ? You didn't go to him at first ; 
you thought he didn't care if you perished ! But at 
last you ran to him and called him — " Master, Mas- 
ter, have mercy on me." Who was it that heard 
that despairing cry — stood up and rebuked the 
waves and the howling tempest — smiled on you, 
and asked you why you were afraid, and made " a 
great calm" in your heart? Who bade you go in 
peace, and put the sweet and blessed peace in your 
heart — showed you your mighty Redeemer, and 
gave you the happy sense of pardoned sins? Oh 
it was Jesus ; you know it was — this same Jesus ! 

There was another sad day — the day of affliction. 
Somebody that you loved was swept away from you 
by death ; perhaps it was your wife. Some fierce 
disease had laid hold upon her. The hymn says, 
they " wait around, to hurry mortals home." At 
first you didn't think there was much the matter : 
two or three days more would ease the aching head 
and cool the fevered lips, and raise her up to sit by 



254 PLANTATION SEKMONS. 

the fire, and to sing and pray in the family worship, 
as she used to do. But the two or three days went by, 
and still the doctor said — "No better — no better," 
every day. You saw the flesh was wasting away — 
oh how bright her eyes were burning, while the poor, 
thin, weak hand could hardly guide itself anymore. 
All at once, the thought flashed upon you — perhaps 
she will never be well again ! It was like a stab in 
your flesh ; you were angry with yourself that you 
ever thought it ; but it was true. The dreary days 
rolled by and swept away her life, as the river- freshet 
washes away the bank. She sank — lower, and yet 
lower — and then the dear frame crumbled away and 
was gone ! 

These are hard times to live through, The world 
gets to be a weary place, when those we love best 
are taken away from us. When the chair she 
always sat on is empty — when there's no head but 
yours on the pillow — when you forget, and call to 
her as if she was alive and near you, and then the 
woeful truth leaps back on your heart that you will 
never, never see her again — she is dead — buried out 
of your sight ! oh it is bitter — more bitter than 
tongue can tell ! Brother Christian, whose hand 
held you up ? Why didn't you " curse God and 
die ?" Whose gracious arm was round you, to still 
the wild beatings of your heart, and to put you in 
mind that you weren't all alone — that your Brother, 
Shepherd, Redeemer, was there ? Who whispered 
of heaven, and endless peace ? It was Jesus. 



HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN. 255 

But you have had bright days, as well as gloomy 
ones. Ah. you remember them as soon as I speak 
of them. There was that " happy Sunday." You 
woke in the morning with a strange, sweet tenderness 
in your soul. When you kneeled down to say your 
prayers, God seemed so great, and yet so near, that 
you hardly knew whether to sing aloud for joy, or 
to fall on your face and keep silence before Jehovah's 
awful throne. You trembled, but you were not 
afraid. You sank down on your knees, but your 
spirit was lifted up. There was Some One there to 
sprinkle the burning throne with blood. You 
talked to him — told him your wonder and love and 
joy — told him how beautiful and holy and glorious 
God was to you — told him what a comfort it was to 
remember that you were his, and he was yours ! 
Somehow or other, as you sang his praise, the happy 
tears would come, and your voice would falter and 
fail with sweet longings to see him, and worship at 
his very feet, and pour out your heart to him. 

Whose visit was it that made you so happy? 
Whose peace rested on you ? Who lit up your dark 
soul with joy and love — kept you by his side all the 
day, and breathed an evening blessing on you, when 
you lay down to sleep ? Who took the sting and 
shame of sin out of your heart, and showed you a 
pardoning and reconciled God ? In whose face did 
you see God's unspeakable glory with fear and great 
joy ? Oh who but jesus ! Yes, 'twas he. His 
royal robes brought their crimson brightness from 



256 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

Calvary. And though he's all glorious and blessed 
now, you feel it's the same voice that cried — " My 
God, my God !" and "It is finished !" 

Yes, Jesus is our only, and our unchangeable 
Redeemer. In heart and nature, he is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and for ever. There are some 
things in which he has changed. That body of dust 
and weariness and anguish, which he had on earth, 
is glorified. The corruptible has put on incorrup- 
tion, and the mortal has put on immortality. His 
lot of suffering is changed into the " glorious rest" 
that the prophet promised him. No more hungry 
visits to barren fig trees ! No more weary and 
thirsty waiting by Jacob's deep well, with nothing to 
draw. No more agonies in the garden ! No more 
fainting under the cross ! 

He has taken his great power, and begun to reign. 
His face shines with a brightness above the sun. 
His crown of thorns shines more splendid than the 
stars. All heaven worships him, whom earth cruci- 
fied ! And happy is the saint, and happy is the 
angel, that can bow at Jesus' feet, and cast his 
crown there, and adore him ! Because he smiles, 
there is no night there. If he should frown, heaven 
would be heaven no more ! 

But has all this changed our Lord Jesus ? Oh 
no! Thank God for that blessed word — "this 
same Jesus !" Whom he loved then, he loves now. 
What he did then, he does now — saves poor sinners, 
and ransoms them from death and hell. He does 



HOW JESUS WILL COME AGAIN. 257 

not forget, in his glory, the church he redeemed in 
his anguish and humiliation. "My Beloved is mine, 
and I am his." 

The angel said — " This same Jesus will so come 
again, in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
heaven." That is, he went up on a bright cloud to 
heaven, and he will come back, as he said, " in the 
clouds of heaven." Did you ever try to think what 
those " clouds of heaven" were like ? Sometimes 
I stand in my door, in the bright fall evening, look- 
ing at the sinking sun among his clouds, and think- 
ing which of them are like those clouds. Half the 
sky is glowing red : the great cloud-mountains burn 
as if they were on fire. But the " clouds of heaven" 
are not like them. Then the deep purple sweeps 
in toward the sun, and the bright gold flashes, and 
flushes, and shines, till my eyes can hardly bear 
the glory. But " the clouds of heaven" are not 
like them. Now look away — in and up — close by 
the blinding sun itself — see the soft, starry, silver 
splendours that watch all round him. How they 
tremble with a sweet glory — how they fill their 
crystal flakes with light ! They sweep down with 
him as he sets; and when he vanishes, they are 
gone. I think those pure and glistening clouds are 
a little like the clouds of heaven ; but they are as 
much brighter and lovelier than these, as the Lord 
Jesus is nobler than the sun. 

Brother Christian, will you know your Saviour 
when he comes ? I don't ask yoa if you'll know 



258 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

him by his throne, or his judgment-words, or the 
■worship of the angels ; but will you know Him ? 
Like Mary, when Jesus called her by her name — 
when you behold his face, will you clasp your hands — 
your hands that tremble with joy, and cry, " My 
Master !" Yes ! though you haven't seen his face 
in the flesh, or walked by the Sea of Galilee with 
him, something in your heart, your true and faithful 
heart, will leap up at the sight of him, and almost 
die of rapture in a moment. Lamb of God ! My 
King ! My Saviour ! My Jesus ! Tongue can say, and 
heart can feel, no more on earth. Heaven will be 
begun. 

Remember that day, believer, amid the sicknesses 
and toils and sins of earth. It ivill come, and will not 
tarry. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee A crown of life." Jesus said that — this 
same Jesus. 

Dying sinner, one farewell word with you. You 
heard that great question with which we started — 
" How can a sinner be saved?" I began at that 
same word, and preached unto you — Jesus. You 
have heard how he came down from heaven, and for 
what he came. You have listened while I told you 
how he was born and how he lived — of his mighty 
works, and wise words, and gracious parables ; of 
his friends and enemies ; of his shameful, dreadful 
death, and of his own solemn declaration, that he 
died so that sinners, just like you, might find mercy. 
You know they can find mercy no where else ; for, 



ACCESS TO GOD BY CHRIST. 259 

if they could, the spotless and glorious Jesus 
would never have been sent to the cross. 

You will have to meet him, yet — this same living, 
holy, mighty Jesus ! How will you meet him ? Oh 
how ? All your eternity is in that question. All 
heaven waits to hear your answer : Will you have 
this Jesus to be your Saviour, or no ? 



Access to God by Christ. 

Come, let us lift our joyful eyes, 

Up to the courts above, 
And smile to see our Father there, 

Upon a throne of love. 

Once 'twas a seat of dreadful wrath, 
And shot devouring flame ; 

Our God appeared consuming fire, 
And Vengeance was his name. 

Rich were the drops of Jesus' blood 
That calmed his frowning face, 

That sprinkled o'er the burning throne, 
And turned the wrath to grace. 

Now we may bow before his feet, 
And venture near the Lord ; 

No fiery cherub guards his seat, 
Nor double flaming sword. 



260 PLANTATION SERMONS. 

The peaceful gates of heavenly bliss, 

Are opened by the Son ; 
High let us raise our notes of praise, 

And reach the eternal throne. 

To thee ten thousand thanks we bring, 
Great Advocate on high ; 

And glory to the almighty King, 
That lays his fury by. 



Aspiring after Heaven 

Rise, my soul and stretch thy wings, 

Thy better portion trace ; 
Rise from transitory things, 

Towards heaven thy native place ; 
Sun and moon and stars decay ; 

Time shall soon this earth remove : 
Rise, my soul, and haste away, 

To seats prepared above. 

Rivers to the ocean run, 

Nor stay in all their course ; 
Fire ascending seeks the sun ; 

Both speed them to their source ; 
So a soul that's born of God, 

Pants to view his glorious face, 
Upwards tends to his abode, 

To rest in his embrace. 



A^IRING AFTER HEAVEN. 261 

Cease, ye pilgrims, cease to mourn ; 

Press onward to the prize ; 
Soon our Saviour will return, 

Triumphant in the skies. 
Yet a season and you know, 

Happy entrance will be given ; 
All our sorrows left below, 

And earth exchanged for heaven. 



PRAYERS. 



[N. B. It will be well to teach your servants the 
Lord's Prayer, and let them repeat it after you, as 
either the opening or closing act of worship. For 
the rest, any short, sensible, earnest prayer of yours 
will be better than any you can read. But if you 
positively cannot honour your Saviour by lifting up 
your voice in supplication and thanksgiving ; then 
the following are offered to assist you in seeking the 
blessing of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit on 
your labours.] 

I. — Opening Prayer. 

Lord God, Father and Maker of us all, we 
thank thee that our lives are spared, and our reason 
continued to us, until another Sabbath day. We 
thank thee for appointing one day in every week to 
worship the living God ; and above all for making 
it so precious to us by raising the Lord Jesus Christ 
from the dead, on this day. He took away the 
terror of the grave from his people, and opened a 
way for them into thy rest. 

We come to thee, Holy God ! trusting in his 
blood, and endeavouring to worship thee in spirit and 
( 262 ) 



PRAYERS. 263 

in truth. Help us by thy mighty Spirit ! Make 
believers love thee better, and serve thee more 
perfectly. Turn poor sinners from their way to 
ruin and despair. Bless us all, both bond and free, 
and send thy gospel all over the world to call dying 
souls to everlasting life, for the Lord Jesus Christ's 
sake, Amen. 

II. 

Our Father, God ! we adore thy mighty power, 
which made the world out of nothing, and formed 
us out of the dust of the ground, and gave us souls 
that live for ever. We praise thy perfect holiness 
and justice, which filled the heavens with eternal 
glory. But most of all, we thank thee for thy 
wonderful love, that pitied dying sinners in their 
woe, and prepared salvation for them ; so that 
whosoever believeth on thy dear Son shall not perish, 
but have everlasting life. Glory to thy name, and 
glory to the Son of thy love, and glory to the Holy 
Spirit, that calls us out of darkness into light ! 

Oh that we might honour thee, our Father, with 
our lives as well as our lips ! But we are poor 
sinners, not worthy to speak to thee, or to lift our 
guilty eyes to heaven. We cannot praise thee, or 
obey thee, or even trust thee, unless thy grace is 
given unto us. Oh pity our hard hearts, forgive 
our sins, bless thy word to us, and receive our un- 
worthy worship, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our 
crucified Redeemer, Amen. 



H 



264 PRAYERS. 

III. — At the close of service. 

We thank thee, Lord, our Master and our 
Friend, that we have heard again a part of thy 
blessed Gospel. And we pray thee to cause it to 
sink down from our ears into our hearts, and make 
us obey God, and trust the Lord Jesus. Oh may 
we love to hear of him while we live, and do his holy 
will ! And when our short lives are over, may we 
go to live with him, and see his glory, and sing his 
mighty power and dying love ! 

And the glory shall be thine, Father, Son, and 
Spirit, for ever, Amen. 

IV. 

Be merciful unto us, God, and bless us, and 
make us remember thy messages of love, and believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ ! Soften our hard hearts, 
we beseech thee, that we may not hear the story of 
the cross carelessly, or trample under foot the blood 
of the Son of God ! Oh save us from wasting our 
Jay of grace and destroying our souls. 

Break down the sinner's pride, and convince him 
of his wickedness ; and then lead him to the cross, 
and wash away his sins. Make thy people faithful ; 
stir up their cold hearts ; make their sins hateful to 
them ; stamp the image of Jesus on their souls ; and 
give him all the glory of their salvation. 

Hear this our prayer — pardon all our sins — and 
save us for Christ's sake, Amen. 



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